


The Highschool Initiative: Year One

by Godofthunder97 (GOT)



Series: The Highschool Initiative [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, But he's funny, Cameos!, Coulson cares, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Darcy comes in later, F/M, Gets better in later chapters, Natasha Romanov Is Not A Robot, Nobody lives with their parents, Not a normal high school, Slightly tweaked origins, Slow Build, Steve and Natasha are roommates, They spend a breathtaking amount of time skipping class, Tony tortures his roommate(Bruce), Tony's a jerk
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-08
Updated: 2015-10-25
Packaged: 2018-03-21 22:54:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 52,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3706767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GOT/pseuds/Godofthunder97
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, Natasha Romanov, Bruce Banner, Clint Barton, and Thor are all teenagers attending high school when they are recruited by Nick Fury to battle crime. But in order to do so they must learn to both survive all the struggles and drama of high school, while also surviving each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Class Assemble!

"It's time to wake up Captain."

Steve Rogers slowly blinked his eyes open.

The last thing that he could remember was falling into the ocean from a HYDRA rocket.

He slowly raised his head up to take in his surroundings. He saw that he was in a small metallic room surrounded by several armed men who wore uniforms with an eagle emblem on them, which meant that as far as he knew they weren't HYDRA.

The man who told him to wake up was a middle-aged African-American man who was of about average height and wore an eyepatch over his right eye.

"Who are you?" Steve groaned as he sat up rubbing the back of his neck. "Where am I?"

"My name is Colonel Nick Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D. And this... is the Helicarrier." Fury said  
as he waved his arm around the room as he spoke.

"S.H.I.E.L.D? I've never heard of any organization with that name." Steve arched an eyebrow at Fury. The older man's one good eye stared back at Steve's pure blue ones.

"Well I'm afraid there's a reason for that soldier." The Colonel looked down at the teenager, he had seen pictures of the youth before he was given the super serum and even he had to admit that seeing the end result in person was almost indescribable.

Never mind the fact that the young man was born on July 4, 1925 and looked no older than 16, but the lad was also in peak physical condition. And even saying that felt like he wasn't giving the serum enough credit. But Fury could tell just by looking at him that his heart was even stronger and more important than any of his enhanced muscles.

Everybody grew up hearing stories about how Captain America rallied his much older than him soldiers to follow him against often near impossible odds. But not everybody grew up knowing the name behind the legend.

Naturally the American government didn't want it to be common knowledge that the greatest soldier in history and their number one weapon against the Nazis wasn't even old enough to buy an alcoholic drink at a bar, so they kept his identity a secret, hence the mask and costume.

Of course the fact that shooting up a 16 year old full of an experimental and dangerous serum probably attributed to that as well.

And so as the years went by Captain America become nothing more than a myth the military used to get kids to enlist, and Steve Rogers the human being got swept under the rug by the history books.

At least until now that is.

"You said there's a reason I've never heard of S.H.I.E.L.D... What is it Colonel?"

Fury's face grew somber as he continued to look into the teen's eyes. The azure orbs continued to beg the question that still had yet to be answered. The older man shuffled his feet slightly and placed his hands behind his back somewhat awkwardly, all without dropping eye contact.

"Captain Rogers I'm sorry to inform you this under these circumstances but... you've been frozen for over 67 years son."

The soldier's eyes nearly popped right of his eye sockets right then and there, his mouth nearly falling all the way to the floor.

"67 years! But that's impossible" Steve said more to himself than to Fury.

It just couldn't be true, he must be trapped in some sort of nightmare or even a HYDRA illusion or trap. Maybe Schmidt drugged him before they fought or maybe he...

"The year is 2012 Captain. The Nazis surrendered shortly after you were frozen which has seemed to preserve your age".

Fury handed Steve a newspaper with the day's date proving what he said as truth and a mirror. After Steve skimmed through the front page of the paper he looked at the mirror and nearly dropped it when he saw his reflection.

If what Fury said was right than he should look and be about 83 years old. But when he looked into his reflection he appeared to be no older than 16. Which was about the age he was when volunteered for and got accepted into the super-soldier project.

Steve felt his heart strain as he held in a weak breathe that sounded almost like a whimper. It was true, he was a man out of time now. He was frozen for damn near a lifetime so that meant that everybody he knew was either dead or otherwise. The Howling Commandos, Colonel Philips...Peggy.

And then there was of course Bucky.

Steve took a deep breath as he ran his hands through his hair pulling at it lightly in a last ditch attempt to try to wake himself up from any nightmare he may have been having. Exhaling one last breath Steve swung his legs over the observation table he had been laying on and looked up at Fury.

"So what now Colonel?".

Fury nodded flashing Steve a sympathetic look for a moment before turning serious again.

"Since you've been frozen there are people with extraordinary powers who fight for the weak"

Fury then pulled out four folders out of his trench coat and handed them to Steve.

"Many of them are in their adolescent years, most of them even attending the same high school".

Steve flipped through the folders noticing several strange pictures such as a man in red and gold armor, a man with a giant hammer, and a giant green beast among others.

"We've already narrowed down the best candidates".

"Best candidates for what?".

Fury allowed a small smirk to show, pride almost oozing through and out his body. But that smirk quickly went away and his look of pride was replaced with a look of determination.

"An organized team of super powered individuals sanctioned by the government to fight evil and save lives Captain."

"And how do i fit into this?" 

"Because they need a leader Steve, and there's nobody better suited for the job than you."

Steve exhaled a breathe he didn't realize he was holding in.

"I'm willing to serve my country Colonel, but I don't know what good I'll be for this team of yours."

"We have a man on the inside of Lee Whedon high school who is in charge of recruiting the other heroes, like I said... all they're going to need is a leader."

Steve crossed his arms over his chest and looked up at Fury who held an expectant gaze towards him. Steve looked back with uncertainty in his own eyes.

"And you think I can be that leader?"

Fury stared right back at him.

"I know you can." He answered without hesitation.

Steve gazed up at the supposed Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. He was always good at reading people and Fury gave off the vibe that he probably spent most of his life telling lies to get what he wanted. But for some reason Steve believed that right then in that moment Fury was giving him his honest opinion.

Thats probably why he stuck out his hand towards him.

"Fine... I'll be on your team."

Fury smiled as he shook the Captain's outstretched hand.

"Good, school starts monday."

Steve's face fell slightly as Fury smirked. He hadn't thought about the fact that he had to go back to high school, never mind the fact that he was in a strange new time with different technology and a different culture.

"So we'd better introduce you to your roommate now then." Fury said as he looked around the room and motioned for someone outside of Steve's line of vision to bring something in.

"Roommate?" Steve repeated with a raised eyebrow.

As he said that a nearby door slid open and soon after a slender feminine figure in black bodysuit with flowing fiery red hair walked into the room.

"Captain Steven Rogers, meet Natasha Romanoff aka the Black Widow, she's one of S.H.I.E.L.D's best and youngest agents... and also your new roommate." 

Steve hopped down from the observation table and awkwardly tried to fix his posture as he tried not to blush as he watched Natasha saunter up to him and offer out her hand for him to shake.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Captain." Natasha smirked ever so slightly.

From what Steve could tell she was about his age, so that meant she was about 16 or 17. She was definitely very, very beautiful as evidenced by his struggling to find words and form coherent sentences when she gazed up at him with her emerald eyes.

Steve looked down to see her hand still hanging out for him to shake so he cautiously put his hand out (not before wiping any sweat off by wiping it on his pant leg) and slowly shook her hand.

"The pleasure is all mine ma'am... and call me Steve."

"Call me Natasha." Steve and Natasha smiled at each other as they shook hands. Even once they were done they both held on to each others hand for a few minutes longer than what was probably necessary.

Fury raised an eyebrow at the two and coughed after a couple minutes.

"You two may want to get going. After all... school is in session."


	2. Roommates

It was a normal Sunday afternoon in the Bronx; kids were playing basketball, couples were walking through the park.

But in a quaint little borough a black sedan pulled up to a rather old and decrepit looking abandoned building.

The car stopped a few feet away from the building and both the driver and passenger doors opened. Out came two figures;one masculine wearing jeans and brown jacket with a white t-shirt. And the other feminine with fiery red-hair, wearing jeans and a black jacket with a red shirt.

They were Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff otherwise known as Captain America and The Black Widow. Steve had a bag strapped around his shoulder, while Natasha wasn't carrying anything.

"This is where we're suppoused to live?" he asked as the two walked towards the building.

A small smile tugged at the corner of Natasha's lips.

"Trust me it looks better on the inside" she winked as she strolled to the front door, not bothering to check if he was following. Steve tried his best not to stare but was finding it increasingly difficult when she threw(what he was sure was a deliberate) swing of her hips as she walked. Steve gulped as he finally gathered enough feeling back in his legs to follow her. 

Natasha went up to the door and moved a brick on the wall next to it to reveal a keypad. After she typed in a four digit pin the door opened to reveal a high tech elevator.

"Told you." Steve silently gaped at her when she stepped into the elevator, 

"You coming?" Natasha questioned as she mischievously arched an eyebrow at the stunned super soldier. 

Steve quickly hopped into the elevator right next to Natasha as the door closed behind him.

"What is this place?" Steve asked after a couple moments of silence as the elevator ascended.

"S.H.I.E.L.D refitted this abandoned building as a headquarters and living quarters for our rag-tag little team." Natasha said looking over at Steve giving him a small smile.

"So this building isn't abandoned."

Natasha nodded.

"It's just made to look that way to keep away any unwanted visitors"

Steve was about to say something else when the elevator dinged and the doors opened. Natasha walked out of the elevator with Steve following close behind.

They went down a short hallway with light brown colored walls to a door marked with the number 2. Natasha took out a key out of one of the pockets of her jeans and opened the door to reveal a rather nice looking average sized apartment.

It wasn't too fancy but it was nice enough to be to Steve's liking.

"Welcome to your new home Steve." 

When Steve looked around the room he noticed there was a small kitchen, a normal sized living room with a nice but not too expensive TV and a leather couch. He also noticed the apartment had a pretty decent view of the outside world and contained two bedrooms.

"Your bedroom is the one on the right, you can go ahead and get settled in if you want but we do need to go over some things before we start school tomorrow." Natasha stated as she plopped on the couch and started going through some papers that were sitting on the coffee table.

Steve nodded silently as he went to his room and opened the door.

It was a rather small room with a bed, a desk, and not much else, but he was sure he could add some others things to it in the future if he really wanted or needed to.

He dropped his bag on the bed and began to go through it dumping it's contents out onto the bed. There wasn't much in there but some clothes, his shield, his costume... and a picture.

Steve took the picture in his hand and looked at it closely rubbing his thumb along it lightly. He had forgotten he had it when he was frozen. It was a picture of an agent that he used to know in the army before he went down. He still owed her a dance, but he guessed it was too late now.

He carefully placed the picture on the desk and went out to the living room deciding to go check on his new roommate.

When he walked out of his room and closed his door he saw Natasha had her head leaned back against the couch her eyes closed shut.

Steve was about to go back in his room but had stopped when he looked at Natasha.

He couldn't help but notice how she closely resembled someone he used to know.

That's probably what made him go sit next to her on the couch.

"Tired Natasha?"

She blinked her eyes open, the green irises darted around the room in silent alarm finally focusing when they landed on Steve. Once she noticed the wary expression on his face she decided to give him a tiny smile to calm his nerves. She could imagine the type of fear one experienced when waking up a sleeping predator. 

"A little bit. Aren't you?" Natasha lightly teased.

"Actually no, I'm not tired in all honesty." 

Natasha shot him an incredulous look.

"You've been frozen for over 67 years, you haven't aged a bit, and you have to lead a group of teenagers with super powers. Those thoughts alone don't even make you the little bit drowsy?"

Steve just nodded somewhat weakly and shrugged his shoulders. He half-expected her to insult him, but instead she just lightly laughed, damn near giggled. 

"You're an enigma Rogers."

"And you aren't?" He countered on cue.

Natasha cocked her head to side to look at him with her piercing green eyes. She raised an eyebrow at his comeback to her remark like she didn't quite believe she actually heard what he said correctly.

He probably only said it because he doesn't really know what kind of person she is yet.

But Steve just smiled at her and shifted his eyes down at the coffee table in front of them.

"Can I ask you something Natasha?"

Natasha nodded leaning back against the back of the couch and propping up her elbow on the top of it.

"Go ahead... we are roommates after all". Steve chuckled quietly to himself rubbing the side of his arm lightly, he leaned forward resting his elbows on his lap.

"What's a sixteen-year old girl doing as a highly-trained assassin for the government?". He asked lifting his head up to look into her eyes.

"What's a sixteen-year old boy doing volunteering for highly unstable government projects." 

"Touche."

Natasha laughed and looked up at the ceiling but stopped when she remembered his question.

"We all got secrets Cap."

Steve nodded but he couldn't help but notice the darkness in her voice. And at that moment he figured that he couldn't disagree with her.

"So who's the first member of our team?" asked Steve changing the subject.

Natasha coughed and leaned forward to pick up the folder at the top of the pile.

"First up, Anthony Stark age 16. A.K.A... Iron Man".


	3. Class Assemble! Part 2

"Damn it Tony you're gonna be late... again."

James "Rhodey" Rhodes was not having a very good day.

It was the first day of his junior year of high school and his best friend Tony Stark(who he was in charge of looking after for his very wealthy and incredibly busy father) was late.

It didn't help that vice-principal Coulson already had it out for Tony and by proxy Rhodey since he was Tony's best friend.

Rhodey looked down at his watch after a couple of minutes, there was about 5 minutes till school started.

"Damn it." Rhodey thought as he took out his phone and dialed Tony's number.  
..........................

Meanwhile in another part of town a red ferarri zipped down the streets at breakneck speed. The driver was Tony Stark, Billionaire Playboy High School Student, the passengers in the backseat were three very attractive women; 2 blonde and 1 brunette, not that that was important or anything.

"Ready for school ladies?" Tony asked not taking his eyes off the road.

"Yes Tony." all 3 answered simultaneously.

"Good." Tony mused while showing his infamous Stark smirk.

And at that moment his phone started started to ring. Tony looked down from the road to pick it up from it's spot on the seat next to him. He frowned however when he saw the caller I.D displayed the name "Rhodey".

Tony rolled his eyes but nonetheless answered the phone after a few more rings.

"Hi mom." he answered in a deflated voice.

"Haha very funny, now where the hell are you? School starts in 3 minutes." 

"I know, I know I had to pick something up. Do me a favor and save me a seat in between you and Pepper in the auditorium will you? Thanks. Ciao." Tony said.

"Tony!..."

"Nothing like good friends, eh ladies." Tony quipped to the girls as he hung up on Rhodey.

The three girls laughed and then screamed in joy as Tony revved the engine and sped up bolting down the road.  
..............................

Steve wandered through the rather large hallways of Lee Whedon high school rubbing the back of his neck with his left hand as he tried to navigate his way to the auditorium.

And he had about 2 minutes left until the assembly all students were mandated to go to would start.

Natasha said they would leave at different times so that Steve could get used to navigating the school on his own. It was a good idea he just turned out to have a breathtaking amount of bad luck as he got lost on the way.

Hey it wasn't his fault that the schools were a lot bigger than they were when he went to school.

He also happened to not be watching where he was going which, lead to him walk right into somebody. The collision left both him and this new stranger lying on the ground.

"Hey will you watch where you're going!"

"Sorry."

Steve looked up to see a man his age dressed in rather nice expensive looking clothes with a clean spiky haircut.

Steve got up and held his hand out for the man to take. The man however just got up on his own accord and dusted off his clothes.

"I'm Steve Rogers," he introduced himself holding out his hand for him to shake.

The man however didn't do the same.

"Tony Stark. The pleasure is all yours I assume."

Steve just raised his eyebrows in response. He got the feeling this was going to be a very long and very rough ride.

"That was a joke." Tony sighed and shook his head.

"Look as much as I would love to just stand here and talk I believe I have an assembly to attend."

"Do you know where the auditorium is?" Steve asked as Tony started to walk away.

"Probably behind the big door that says auditorium" said Tony as he walked over to said door down the hall.

"Well that's embarrassing," Steve thought to himself as he followed him in.

When he walked in he noticed that Tony went to go sit in between a black male and a girl with ginger-red hair.

He looked around and noticed a well built male in a flannel shirt with long blonde hair. He was sitting next to a petite brunette and a shorter gentlemen with black hair.

At the other end of the room he noticed a short young looking male with an equally young looking brunette wearing glasses who had her hair pulled up in a pony tail.

He stopped when he saw Natasha sitting off to the side walked over when he saw her motioning for him to come sit with her.

A couple of seconds later he was sitting next to her and he flashed her a smile which she reciprocated.

"Way to be on time Rogers." Natasha teased with a playful but sarcastic edge.

"Sorry I got lost." 

He still wasn't sure what to think of Natasha,after all he had only met her about a day and a half ago. She seemed to be really nice but then at the same time she seemed rather cold and stand-offish. But for the most part he trusted her, even though he couldn't exactly explain why yet.

"You see any of our boys?" she asked looking forward.

"A couple but I don't remember their names off the top of my head," Steve admitted.

Natasha pointed to the blonde male from earlier that was wearing the flannel shirt.

"That's Thorton Odinson A.K.A 'Thor the God of Thunder'. The two people next to him are Jane Foster and Erik Selvig, both are model students with no criminal records of any sort."

She pointed towards the two younger looking people.

"That is Bruce Banner A.K.A 'The Hulk' and next to him is Betty Ross. She's the principal's daughter".

She finally pointed towards Tony.

"And that's..."

"Tony Stark... we've met." Steve interrupted none to enthusiastically.

Natasha blinked.

"Really. How'd it go?"

"Could have went better probably."  
.............................

"What took you so long Tony?" asked the girl sitting next to Tony.

"Like I told Rhodey, Pepper I had to pick something up." Tony replied nonchalantly.

Pepper only raised her eyebrow at him.

"And you expect us to believe that." Rhodey chimed in with a raised eyebrow.

Tony rolled his eyes.

"Fine then, don't believe me. But you two should know that you have hurt me both deeply and emotionally, and I am now not going to talk either of you for the rest of the assembly," he huffed as he crossed his arms.

"Tony..." Pepper started.

"Not talking." Tony pouted rather childishly.

"Tony..." Rhodey gritted clenching his teeth.

"LaLaLaLaLaLALaLaLaLA! Can't hear you!"

"Oh god." Pepper groaned as she put her head in her hands.  
.............................

"Shouldn't there be one more?" Steve asked.

Shield's youngest agent rummaged around the information stored in her brain for a second before she replied.

"Yes, there should be but I don't see him anywhere."

Natasha was interrupted when the whole room silenced as the vice-principal walked up to the podium.

"First of all I'd like to welcome you all back for another year here at Lee Whedon High School," Mr. Coulson the vice principal stated.

After a minute of silence he coughed and continued.

"This year you will all be expected to..."

Steve nudged Natasha in the arm halfway through his sentence.

"So that's the vice-principal."

Natasha nodded.

"Not only that but he's also our man on the inside."

Steve eyebrows rose up.

"Your kidding!"

"Nope he's the reason you and I are right here."

"Remind me to thank him later."

The red-head quietly laughed as she returned to listening to Coulson's speech. About 10 minutes later Coulson ended his speech and dismissed all the students for their first period classes. Steve and Natasha were walking side by side going over their schedules.

"It looks like we're in the same lunch, history, and chemistry classes." Natasha stated.

"Which are our 3rd, 9th, and 4th period classes," the super-soldier replied.

"What do you have first?" the fiery teen walking next to him asked.

"Algebra 2." 

"Have fun."  
.......................

"What do you have first Tony?" Pepper asked as the three friends strolled out of the auditorium.

"Looks like I've got Algebra 2, oh joyest of joys" Tony answered.

"You'd be in Trig by now if you didn't slack off and miss so many days of school" Rhodey stated scolding the young inventor.

"Mommy it wasn't my fault, it was Iron Man's." Tony defended in a childish voice.

Rhodey rolled his eyes.

"Good luck." Pepper said.


	4. Class Assemble! Part 3

Room South 102 was a quaint little room that had a generous view of the outside world. A trait not lost to many of the students that ended up inhabiting it. Other than that there wasn't much out of the ordinary, it had things most classes had(chairs, desks, sharpeners, etc).

The walls on the other hand were a dull white color, but when they were illuminated by sunlight they ended up adding a ceirtan cheerfulness to the room. The name of the room's teacher was Mr. James Kirby.

The teacher of S102 was hanging various amusing(at least to himself) mathematical puns all around the room. Sayings such as "I like pi" and what not covered the walls.

He then stepped down from the chair he was on, opened the door to his class, and sat down in his chair behind his desk and waited for his new students to enter.

After a few minutes students started to pile in all of them in the 16-17 age range. The last two to arrive were both boys.

One was wearing red and black shoes, black Levi jeans, and a blazer jacket over a black sabbath t-shirt. He also wore a gold chain around his neck that said STARK and had black spiky hair.

The other had on a green hollister shirt, light blue jeans, brown shoes and had dirty blonde hair that was cut in a short almost military style.

Kirby looked on his class list and found their names under their respective pictures.

Tony Stark and Steve Rogers.

They also had to sit next to each other since there were no other open desks.

He then cleared his throat and smiled at his students.

"Hello I'm Mr Kirby and obviously I'm going to be your Algebra 2 teacher," he welcomed with a smile.

Kirby then started to go over things such as attendance, what they will learn this year, and so on and so on.

Midway through all this however Steve felt someone nudge him.

He turned and saw that it was Tony who was staring at him with his shades hanging on top of his head in his hair.

"Hey you're the guy I ran into earlier right?" Tony inquired making no effort to whisper since they were in the back of the room.

"Yeah..." Steve answered hesitantly remembering just how unpleasant and uncomfortable that encounter had been for him.

"Well I wanted to ask you something if that's alright". Tony asked with a surprising amount of politeness both in his wording and his tone of voice.

"Go ahead."

"Who's that chick with the red-hair you were sitting with, your girlfriend or something?" he questioned bluntly.

So much for him being polite. Steve thought as he blinked at Tony a few times in shock.

"Um well... she's uh just well she's a uh old friend of mine that's all." Steve stuttered out.

Tony simply creased his eyebrow at his new classmate.

"Uh-huh yeah sure".

They both turned away from each other and sat in silence. Before they knew it 1st period ended and the two walked off in different directions for their 2nd period classes. Steve's next class was English which was taught by a middle-aged teacher named Ms Penhal who was nice enough as far as he could tell. But other than that the class was rather uneventful.

After class ended Steve walked out to see Natasha waiting for him.

She was leaning against a locker with one foot up behind her. When he looked at her it was the first time that he actually saw and noticed what she was wearing.

She had on leather black boots that stopped just below her thighs, ripped jeans, a low cut white tee, and she still had the same hairstyle that reminded him of a former life.

"Hey." Natasha said.

"Hey."

"Hows your day going so far?" she asked.

"No complaints, Tony was in my Algebra class" he replied .

"Really? How did that go?" Natasha asked repeating her earlier question from the assembly.

"Not quite sure." Natasha lightly smiled at him as he shrugged and flashed her a somewhat lopsided grin that could almost be classified as a smirk. Almost.

"Come on, it's lunch time let's go for a walk". She said after moment.

"Can we do that?" Steve asked hesitantly.

"Steve you are a highly decorated super soldier with natural born leadership skills, and I am a highly trained assasin/special agent for the worlds top national security agency. I think we're allowed to go out for out lunch. Plus there's the added perk that we're upper class men." Natasha countered as she walked away.

Steve just stayed where stood watching her.

"She definitely reminds me of someone." Steve mused to himself..

Natasha slowed her walk and looked over her shoulder. 

"You coming?" She challenged mischievously .

Steve wasted no time running off to catch up with her.  
....................................

Thor was sitting next to his good friend Jane Foster under a tree outside the school for their lunch period. Many students that were also on their lunch period were walking around doing various things since there was an outdoor cafeteria.

Jane was reading some book she was currently really interested in while Thor just enjoyed the sunny weather. He looked up from his comfortable make shift grass bed and noticed a boy and a girl walking away from the school talking amongst each other ignorant of their surroundings. He noticed the boy had short blonde hair while the girl had fiery red-hair.

He looked around and also noticed a rather scrawny boy sitting with a brown haired girl with glasses, and two boys and a girl sitting with each other at a distant table as well. Thor's head turned towards Jane after he heard her close her book.

"Are you all right Jane Foster?"

"Yeah I'm just fine Thor." Jane sighed.

Thor just gazed at her with confusion and concern visibly clouding his facial features.

"Are you sick or perhaps fatigued?"

"I'm a little tired Thor I don't know why but I had trouble sleeping" responded Jane.

"Back in Asgard I used to have many nights of unrest whenever I knew I had to go to battle." said Thor as he leaned back resting his hands on the back of his neck.

"Can I ask you something Thor?"

"Anything Jane Foster." Thor replied quickly.

"If you are like a god, t-than-than why do you age like us humans?".

"Well you see Jane Foster...".

Thor stopped mid-sentence when he caught something happening in the corner of his eye.

"What is it?" Jane questioned looking up at him.

"Over there." He answered pointing over towards the table with the scrawny human who was being dragged away by a group of bullies.

"I will return soon."  
.............................................

Bruce Banner really hated high-school right now.

He was just eating lunch minding his own business and talking to his good friend Betty when a group of muscle headed brutes picked him up and dragged him away from his lunch table.

They dragged him to a spot behind the school and slammed him into the wall.

"Shouldn't you guys be stealing some 3rd graders lunch money or something?" Bruce asked as the leader of the bullies pushed him up against a brick wall and snorted.

"Yeah that's funny, listen I'm going to be honest with you. We don't think you and your little girlfriend belong here".

He was referring to the fact that both Bruce and Betty were only fifteen years old and juniors due to their advanced intelligences.

"Yeah, and...?" Bruce asked defiantly as he rubbed the arm the bullies had grabbed him by.

"So we're going to make things here as miserable for you as we possibly can." the leader said as he raised his fist back and gripped Bruce by his collar.

"This isn't going to end well." Bruce thought to himself as he slowly felt his anger take over.

"Halt!".

They all turned to see Thor standing there with his arms crossed.

"What do you want Rapunzel?" one of the bullies asked.

"Put him down, he is defenseless and an innocent." Thor commanded.

"Yeah I am but the Hulk's not." Bruce mused silently to himself as his anger slowly went away.

"Oh yeah and what are you going to do about it?" the leader asked taking a few confrontational steps towards Thor.

"You were warned." Thor sighed with an air of boredom.

"GET HIM!"

Two of the three bullies then charged towards Thor. But he calmly just kicked one in the stomach while he used the other's own momentum to drop him over his back. He then punched the thug that he kicked in his back sending him face first into the ground.

He then turned towards the leader and cracked his neck to the side.

"Leave and I will not harm you." Thor stated firmly.

The leader just charged at Thor which resulted him being flipped over onto his back by the god of thunder.

Thor put his foot firmly on the chest of the bully.

"Leave him and his friend alone and you will not face my wrath again."

The bully just groaned as he slipped into unconsciousness.

Thor then walked over to Bruce and offered him his hand.

"Are you all right friend?"

Bruce took his hand and brushed himself off when he got up.

"Um yeah I am thanks for the help".

"It was no problem" Thor nodded.

"I'm Bruce".

"Thorton Odinson, but you may refer to me as Thor."

Bruce smiled at him and then looked down at his watch.

"Oh crap lunch ends in 2 minutes!"

"Well we better get moving than shouldn't we." Thor grinned.


	5. Hulk Smash!

Steve and Natasha quickly made their way back to the high school from their walk after Natasha had looked down at her watch and realized that 4th period would start in just a few minutes.

So now they were running through the halls in the direction of their class (luckily it was on the 1st floor) it was only a few more minutes later that they ran through the door to their room followed by two others right before the bell rang.

The four stopped to catch their breath until Steve and Natasha looked up to see that one of the two boys that followed them was rather scrawny with scruffy hair, while the other was well built with long flowing blonde hair.

Steve recognized them as Bruce Banner and Thorton Odinson.

The teacher of the class Dr. Henry Pym smiled at the group.

"Cut it a little close there didn't you. Go find some seats so we can start." Pym stated nodding towards the empty desks in the room.

The chemistry teacher looked to be somewhere in his late sixties to early seventies but did appear extremely well aesthetically for a man his age. His long grey hair that was slicked back exemplified the youthfulness he still retained while his scruffy beard gave a certain paternal feel to his aura.

Thor decided to sit in a desk next to Erick Selvig while Bruce went and sat in the very front of the room. Steve and Natasha sat next to each other in the far back of the room away from their soon to be teammates.

"All right I'm sure your all ecstatic to be here so I'll be as quick as I can." Pym declared as he walked over and stood behind his large instructor's desk that sat at the front of the room in front of the black board that had Pym's name on it written in chalk.

Like Mr. Kirby he went over the basic stuff a teacher would go over on the first day of school (attendance, what they'll do this year, small information about himself, etc).

But the first two members of the Avengers weren't paying very much attention to that.

"What's wrong Natasha?" Steve asked noticing that she was looking down at her desk deep in thought.

"It's nothing. I just recognize the name Pym from somewhere but I can't remember where," the assassin confessed.

Steve nodded in response and then remembered the question that he had wanted to ask her earlier.

"By the way, do you have any idea where the last member of our team is?"

Natasha shook her head.

"So far neither you nor myself have had any sort of contact with him."

"Who is he?"

Natasha thought for a moment before she answered.

"Clint Barton age 17 a.k.a Hawkeye."

"What info do you have on him?" the prospective leader of the Avengers questioned further.

"Not much, just that he is a vigilante of sorts. Other than that nothing; no address, no next of kin, nothing."

"Does he even still go here?"

Natasha was silent for a moment.

"That's a good question," she finally replied.

Meanwhile on the other side of the room.

"What kept you Thor?" Selvig inquired.

Thor hesitated before he answered.

"Let's just say I had to help someone in need."

"Say no more." Selvig nodded.

Pym passed out the course syllabus and soon after the bell rang signaling the end of the class.

Steve and Natasha said a brief bye to each other as they both headed in different directions for their next classes.

Bruce himself was walking down the hallway when the bully from earlier slammed him against a locker.

He groaned and looked up at the bully.

"What do you want Cade?".

Cade just glared at him.

"I told you I was going to make you miserable... and your boyfriend blondie isn't here to save you this time".

"Perfect just perfect." Bruce thought to himself as he felt his eyes turn a bright shade of green.

..................................

Thor was currently content staring out towards the bright blue sky from the window in the library he was in for his study hall period.

While he may not always like everything about Earth the one thing that he always loved was the sky.

He was interrupted from his thoughts however when his ears perked up right before a loud bang resonated throughout the entire building.

The teacher hurriedly rushed everyone out of the class as the school alarm rang signaling that the school was being evacuated.

Thor followed the crowd out of the room but he moved to the side and hid in a deserted hallway away from the mad rush of students. The Asgardian concentrated and a blinding bolt of lightning flashed changing Thor from his regular clothing into light armor and a red cape, and he was now also armed with his mighty hammer MJLONIR.

He then ran off in the direction that the noise came from.

Steve was just sitting in his health class paying attention to his teacher when all of a sudden there was a very loud noise and the teacher was soon rushing all the students out of the room.

He casually walked out the classroom with his backpack until he felt someone pull him aside.

Steve instinctively raised his fist and poised himself to strike until he looked down and saw Natasha's green eyes staring up at him, he also noticed that she had both her hands gripped on his shoulders.

She was also now dressed in her black catsuit instead of her civilian clothes.

After a second Natasha withdrew her hands slowly from his shoulders and spoke up.

"Come on soldier we've got a job to do. Oh and by the way... you may want to put your costume on." The Black Widow teased wearing a mischievous smirk.

Students were running out of the school, some to their cars and others in the directions of their homes.

But then all of a sudden a male student was thrown out the school doors and onto a nearby car.

A giant green creature then bursted through the doors and slowly stomped towards the car.

The Incredible Hulk grabbed Cade by the the face lifting him up off the car and started to squeeze.

"Halt!"

Hulk stopped and threw Cade to the side. He growled as he turned around and was face to face with none other than the god of thunder Thor.

"While I do admit that excuse of a human does deserve some form of punishment murder is not the answer." Thor decreed swinging his hammer around leisurely.

Hulk just snorted in response.

He then swiftly kicked Thor through the school doors and sending him crashing into some lockers.

The Hulk growled in victory but was cut short however when he was blasted in the back by a plasma projectile.

When he turned around he saw a hovering figure clad in red and gold armor.

Iron Man.

"While I'm not one to usually cry over the destruction of school property it is rather rude to just smash people left and right all willy nilly." Iron Man remarked.

Hulk just responded by throwing the car Cade was previously on towards the metallic clad hero.

He flew out of the way just in time and blasted Hulk again this time in the chest.

The Hulk hissed in pain before Iron Man flew towards him and punched him in the chin sending him stumbling a few inches back.

Iron Man charged towards Hulk again only to be caught this time by the leg after Hulk ducked.

Hulk then proceeded to smash Iron Man into the ground a few times before he flung him at a tree.

Iron Man groaned as he flopped to the ground.

"No you stay there ...I'll just lay down here and try to regain consciousness."

The Hulk trudged over to the bent over hero and lifted his foot to stomp Iron Man's head when a rapidly moving object hit his foot making him lose his balance and fall over.

The object which was a shield returned to it's owner Captain America who was standing next to the Black Widow who stood with two guns raised.

Thor slowly walked out of the school and stood next to the two Avengers before he raised his hand calling MJOlNIR back into his possession.

The Hulk picked himself up and growled at the three of them.

"While I know not who you two are we must work together to stop this beast." Thor decided.

"Agreed." Widow replied.

"Alright can you distract him while we flank him?" Cap asked looking over at Thor.

"It would be my pleasure." Thor answered as he flew towards Hulk and smacked him into the air with his hammer and swung down quickly sending the beast quickly crashing into the ground.

Hulk got up a few seconds later and snorted up at the direction of Thor who gracefully lowered himself onto the ground.

"Round two." Thor growled as he charged at the Gamma-Ray beast.

"Let's go." Cap said as both he and Widow went to either side of Hulk who was blocking Thor's hammer blow for blow with his giant fists .

"Now!"

Widow opened fired on Hulk, the bullets from her guns bouncing off his back while Cap threw his shield at Hulk knocking him on the head. This only caused Hulk to slightly lose his balance but it gave Thor the opportunity to whack Hulk in the face with his hammer further wrecking the monster's equilibrium.

Thor yelled a mighty war cry as he swung again with all his might at the Hulk launching him into a group of trees across the street from the school.

The three once again stood side by side but were now joined by the limping Iron Man.

"You think that stopped him?" Iron Man asked.

No sooner did he say that the Hulk yelled as he got up barely scathed.

"I highly doubt it." Widow quipped as they all raised their weapons of choice.

Hulk jumped over their heads and landed right behind them and roared in their faces as they all jumped back getting into their defensive positions.

He raised his hand and was prepared to strike when an arrow bounced off his arm stopping him in his tracks.

The monster turned around to see a figure clad in purple and black with short brown hair and purple shades standing on a car with a bow raised and an arrow primed.

Clint Barton a.k.a Hawkeye.

"Easy there big green don't do something you'll regret."

Hulk only charged at him in response.

Hawkeye fired multiple arrows at him trying to slow him down to no avail.

The Hulk reached him in seconds and was about smash him before Hawkeye jumped out of the way seconds before Hulk destroyed the car with his gargantuan of a hand.

He was about to charge again when Iron Man and Thor cut him off at the pass.

"We can't hold him off like this forever, we need to find a way to stop this now." Widow stated as she reloaded one of her guns.

"She's right." Hawkeye agreed priming another arrow.

Cap looked around the area in hopes finding anything they could use to their advantage when he noticed that there was a large balcony above the entrance to the school.

"If we can get him under there we can trap him."

Widow nodded.

"Make the order."

"Iron Man! Thor! try to get him under the school entrance and we'll do the rest!" Cap yelled.

Both heroes in question nodded deciding that now wasn't the best time to ask how he knew their names as they flew at Hulk hitting him with various rockets, plasma blasts, and hammer swings which seemed to momentarily slow him down.

Cap turned towards Hawkeye.

"We'll go help them you just wait till he's under the balcony".

Hawkeye nodded taking position by the entrance.

Cap and Widow both fired at Hulk with bullets and Cap's shield while Iron Man and Thor continued to hit him with plasma blasts and Thor's hammer, eventually this onslaught sent him wobbling closer to the balcony with each hit.

Hulk however clapped his hands together letting out a thunderous shockwave of air sending all but Cap flying in different directions.

Cap ran towards Hulk and whacked him in the face with his shield and threw a couple punches in before he blocked a punch from Hulk with his shield the force of the hit causing Cap to fall back and balance himself on one knee.

Hawkeye fired an exploding arrow at Hulk's head disorientating him while Widow continued to fire with her guns which allowed Cap the chance to recompose himself and hit Hulk in the chin with his shield with enough force to send him into the air.

Iron Man then ran underneath Hulk and fired at him with his uni-beam sending him back in the air where the waiting Thor smashed Hulk into the ground under the balcony with his hammer.

"Now!" Cap yelled.

Hawkeye nodded as he fired two explosive arrows at the balcony sending it tumbling down effectively burying Hulk in the rubble.

The five lowered their weapons and all silently breathed a sigh of relief once the Hulk didn't get back up.

The ground beneath them started to shake however which caused them all to look up weapons raised.

A large aircraft with four large engines then came into view and landed a few feet behind them in the parking lot that had become empty during the fight since all the students and faculty fled.

The hangar doors opened to reveal Col. Fury with his hands resting behind his back and several S.H.I.E.L.D agents with their weapons raised.

All but Cap and Widow raised their weapons ready to strike at the drop of a leaf.

"All of you wait! Put your weapons down, they mean you no harm!" Widow yelled as she moved to stand in between the agents and the heroes.

"Oh yeah and why should we believe you?" Iron Man retorted raising his cannon and pointing it towards her.

"If I were you I'd put that down." Cap warned stepping in front of Widow with his shield raised.

"I'd say the same to you." Hawkeye retorted aiming an arrow at Cap.

"We are just going around in circles as you humans say, which is taking us no where." Thor reasoned.

"All of you stop."

They all turned towards Fury who stared at the motley crew with his one good eye, calm but none too pleased at the conflict he saw unfolding.

Fury looked towards the agents.

"All of you go over and recover the Hulk, we're going to need him. Oh and proceed with caution will you."

He then turned his attention back towards the heroes.

"And you all are coming with me."

"And if we choose not to?" Iron Man asked defiantly. 

Natasha calmly ran a hand through her curly hair and stared at Iron Man piercing through his helmet with those green eyes of her.

"Well you don't really have a choice in the matter... Tony."


	6. The Team

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the shortness of this chapter but I promise it's necessary. Thanks for reading!

"How do you know my name?" Tony gaped at the fiery Black Widow and the indifferent looking Fury. The young billionaire was suddenly glad he was wearing his helmet, other wise the other heroes and agents of S.H.I.E.L.D would see just how low his jaw dropped.

"There's a lot we know about you, all of you" Natasha stated placing a hand on her hip.

"How?" Clint asked.

"It will all be explained later, but please follow me" Fury answered as he turned walking up the ramp to the helicarrier. The heroes minus Steve and Natasha begrudgingly nodded as they all followed Fury.

"You have all made a wise choice and believe me when I say the world thanks you for it." Fury assured as the group traversed through the helicarrier, passing many busy S.H.I.E.L.D agents on the way.

Eventually they entered a hallway that led to the bridge of the large aircraft. Various agents were either running around, talking to each other,or on computers. There was a young brunette who was barking orders yelling various commands to agents on computers standing at the very top of the bridge over looking the central hub.

Behind her was an area with a large round table with six chairs stationed around it. Clint, Tony, Steve, and Natasha all sat next to each other while Thor choose next to the table with his arms crossed. Steve was now without his mask(which shocked everyone but Fury, Natasha, and Clint who was the only one of the group to have never seen him before) Tony without his helmet, Clint without his shades, and Thor without his cape.

Fury didn't say anything at first but finally cleared his throat when he noticed their questioning gazes.

"Hold on, we still have one member left who has yet to arrive."

Before anyone could question his statement the doors to the bridge slid open to reveal some S.H.I.E.L.D agents escorting a newly clothed Bruce Banner to the table.

"What are you doing here friend?" Thor asked thoroughly confused.

"Well you see that thing that almost killed you guys... that was me. Well sort off."

"Didn't see that coming," a shocked Tony remarked his mouth left hanging open.

"Sorry if I don't believe that you almost killed the 5 of us all by yourself." Clint remarked leaning back in his chair resting his feet up on the table.

"Allow me to explain." Fury chimed in as Bruce sat in a chair next to Tony.

"Mr. Banner was doing research on gamma-rays for a school project and was accidently over-exposed to some along the way. So now whenever he gets angry he turns into the Hulk." 

Tony whistled.

"All that for a school project?"

Bruce shrugged.

"I've been trying my best to control my anger so lately I only turn into the... other guy when I'm hurt or badly threatened."

"And that is why until we can control Hulk you will work strictly as the brains for the team, at least for now." The director of S.H.I.E.L.D laid out.

"Wait, what team?" Tony questioned his head shooting up towards Fury, his face scrunched up defiantly.

Fury turned towards the incredibly wealthy and incredibly irritable(and irritating depending on who you ask) with a neutral expression adorning his scarred face.

"All of you have extraordinary powers or abilities and all of you have used them for good." Fury monologued as he paced back and forth in front of the table seemingly ignoring Tony's inquiry at the moment.

"Look, the sad truth is that there are so many super-powered villains in the world the police and the military just can't protect the world by themselves. They need help from people like you."

"People like us?" Bruce arched an eyebrow.

"Meta-humans. Individuals super powers or other extraordinary abilities." Natasha answered as she leaned forward on the table crossing her arms. 

Tony rolled his eyes.

"As nice as that sounds teamwork just really isn't my thing."

Steve who was sitting next to Tony turned his head towards the teen.

"As much as you may not like if the world needs your help then you have an obligation to do anything you can to help. And while I personally think your nothing more than a spoiled brat, that suit of yours is useful."

"First off boyscout your right the world does need me, but this suit of mine is not just going to be some weapon for shield."

Natasha shook her head as she rolled her eyes at the both of them.

"If you boys are done wasting time we do have more important things to do."

"But that's only if you all agree to work each other, and while I may not like it I can't force you." Fury acquiesced. 

"What the hell-I'm in." Clint finally said breaking the silence.

"As am I." Thor stated.

"Yeah why not." Bruce added rubbing his chin.

Tony looked around at the myriad of faces staring at him and after a few seconds he sighed massaging his temples with his hands.

"Fine I'm in."

Fury nodded at the six teenagers.

"You have all made a wise decision. And as of now your are no longer just teenagers or even just superheroes, now you're Avengers."


	7. Headquarters

The helicarrier dropped the Avengers off at a remote location outside of the Bronx and now a large black SUV with tinted windows driven by Natasha was taking them to their new headquarters.

Steve was in the front seat next to her while Tony and Bruce were in the middle row and Thor and Clint were in the back. The drive was silent until Natasha pulled up to an abandoned building.

Tony rolled down his window and stuck his head out with a disgusted look on his face that he wasn't even remotely trying to hide.

"That's it?" he groaned skeptically.

Clint, Bruce, and Thor also rolled down their windows and stuck their heads out.

"I've been in worse." Clint mused.

"Trust me it looks better on the inside." Natasha remarked with the slightest sense of deja vu as she drove around to the back of the building.

"Believe me it's better to just trust her." Steve advised as all but Tony brought their heads back into the car.

"Still sucks." Tony pouted as he brought his head back in.

"Steve can you do me a favor and hand me the remote control in the glove?" Natasha asked politely.

Steve wordlessly obliged and fished said device out of the compartment before handing it to her. Tony noticed this and leaned over towards Bruce with mischievous intent. 

"Someone is whipped." The billionaire whispered.

Bruce just rolled his eyes and looked out the window away from the young man that is Iron Man.

Natasha pressed a button on the remote and a group of bricks about the size of a garage door shook and moved aside revealing a large opening similar to the elevator at the front of the building only bigger. She drove the car into the opening and the bricks moved back into place behind opening actually was an elevator and took them down several levels.The door slid open and Natasha drove the van into a spot in an area inside the building next to a few other vehicles.

The room was very large as there were sections for working out and training, sections for vehicles and weapons, and an area with a few large computer screens. In the middle of the room rested a large round table with six chairs around it similar to the one on the helicarrier except it was made out of a more expensive looking mahogany.

Tony was the first to walk out of the supervillain and dropped the bag he had around his shoulder onto the ground with a thud, the shades he was wearing fell to his nose.

"I stand corrected," he shockingly admitted.

The rest of the Avengers all stepped out of the car with bags around their shoulders, all except the two teens that already lived there of course.

"I've definately been in worse." Clint whistled.

"You human's technology never ceases to amaze me, even though it is rather primitive." Thor mused aloud.

"How did you do this?" Bruce asked looking towards Natasha.

"You see this used to be the secret lair of some super villain, you see the bottom and middle floors are actually abandoned so if anyone wandered into the building they wouldn't see anything important. S.H.I.E.L.D just refitted the top floors into living quarters for us." Natasha explained.

"Oh." all the boys minus a proud almost smug Steve said simultaneously.

"Come on, we've got to go over a few things and decide who's rooming with who." Natasha mentioned as she walked towards the elevator near the vehicles.

The boys however were still in awe of the basement and had not moved an inch.

Natasha sighed and whistled loudly getting their attention.

"You coming boys?"

Steve was the first to turn around and walk towards her.

Tony only smirked

"Yep he's whipped."

"Do you blame him?" Clint countered as he followed Steve only to soon be joined by Thor and Bruce leaving Tony by himself. The young engineer sighed to himself and put his bag back around his shoulder and put his shades back on.

"Yeah I can tell this is gonna be loads of fun."

Tony joined the other Avengers as they all piled into the elevator, Natasha pressing the 12 button when they were all safely inside the box.

"Ok so Tony and Bruce will be in room 3 and Clint and Thor are in room 4, Steve and I are already in room 2." Natasha stated handing Tony, Bruce, Clint, and Thor their respective room keys as the elevator ascended.

"Wait hold on a minute, why does G.I Joe get to room with an attractive member of the opposite gender while I have to room with someone who destroys a city block when he's angry?" Tony whined.

"The feelings mutual." Bruce remarked.

"Do you ever think before you speak Stark?" Steve wondered crossing his arms, obviously growing sick of Tony's comments and attitude.

"No I don't, I'm too smart to think."

Natasha glared at Tony with a murderous glint in her eyes deciding she was tired of just ignoring Tony's never ending line of insults.

"I am rooming with Steve because he is the only one out of this group so far who I know I can trust won't do anything stupid."

Tony thought this over seemingly seriously before he replied.

"Agreed, Mr. Ken doll over here probably doesn't have the guts to do anything fun anyway."

"You humans are so petty, and tiny." Thor chuckled.

Thankfully the elevator finally reached the 12th floor and the group quickly piled out heading their separate ways to their rooms.

"Everyone be sure to report back to the basement in about an hour we still have some things to go over." Natasha ordered as she and Steve went and unlocked their front door.

Everybody nodded as they walked into their respective apartments.  
.................................................................

"Ugh he's so aggravating."

Natasha was not happy in the slightest as she walked into their apartment and plopped onto the couch. Steve closed the door behind them and proceeded to lock it. Once he was sure everything was secure the teen from the forties strolled quietly over to the fridge and began searching for something to eat. Natasha shot his hidden form the dirtiest look he had never seen yet.

"You men, always thinking with your stomach."

"What did I do?" Steve asked in self-defense as he stook his head out from inside the fridge.

Natasha seemed to soften a little but was she was still angry as far as Steve could tell. Not that he could even try to claim that he understood women.

"I'm... sorry I just hate guys like Stark, arrogant little pricks who think they know and own everything." Natasha apologized before beginning to rant again.

"I'm not going to be sending him any christmas cards either but you can't let him get to you like that." Steve reasoned as he sat next to her on their purple couch.

"Thanks." Natasha breathed out. She ran a hand through her fiery curls tying it into a messy ponytail surprising Steve with the amount of comfort she was showing around him. She finally looked over at the blonde teen with curious green eyes and noticed that he wore an anxious look on his face. His brow was furrowed and his face was scrunched up, his nose twitching ever so slightly.

"What's wrong?"

Steve turned his head towards trying his best not to be distracted by how pretty he thought she looked with hair up in a ponytail, using all his inner strength to not get lost in the green pools of her eyes that shined like emeralds.

"Do you think I'm in way over my head here?" he questioned quietly.

That caught Natasha off guard to say the least.

"What?"

"This whole thing. Do you think I'll be able to lead these guys I mean what if I get them killed or something, I mean things definately aren't the same as it was all those years ago. If it wasn't for Hawkeye the Hulk probably would have killed us."

Natsha looked at him with an understanding look but she was able to muster up what she thought was the right amount if determination in her voice for that moment.

"Maybe but it was your plan that stopped the Hulk and it was you who rallied us together in the first place."

"Yeah but..."

"Don't you dare do that," she commanded with an amount of emotion in her voice that shocked Steve to his core. 

"You are a natural born leader Steve and there's no one more fit to lead this team, so for god sakes stop beating yourself up."

Steve would have argued further but he noticed the fire in Natasha's eyes and wisely decided against doing so.

"Thanks Natasha."

"Your welcome... oh and by the way just so you know I will follow you into battle no matter what, remember that" said Natasha as she herself got up and went to get something from the fridge.

"Natasha Romanoff you are an enigma." Steve thought to himself as he picked up what Natasha told him was a remote and turned on the box that he learned was called a t.v.

A New Day indeed.  
...............................................

"I call top bunk."

Clint climbed the ladder to the top of the bunk bed in the room he and Thor shared. Their room looked similar to Steve and Natsha's except there was only bedroom not two so there was a bunk bed instead.

Thor looked up at Clint who was in a relaxed position on top of his bunk and raised his eyebrow.

"Isn't a bunk bed rather juvenile?".

"Your just jealous you got the bottom bunk." Clint teased as he closed his eyes and snuggled into his blanket.

Thor shrugged and layed down into his bunk. It was a little small and rather uncomfortable however.

"I'm a god and I've been reduced to sleeping in these inferior sleeping condition.s" Thor gripped as he sat up only to hit his head on Clint's bunk.

"Damn it all."  
................................................

"Okay first off there will be no snoring or loud noises or activities after 10:30 after all I do need my beauty sleep. No smelly foods, I get first choice for which t.v shows we watch..."

Tony was hard at work explaining to Bruce the "Stark Roomate agreement" as he coined it. The playboy had already claimed the better room of the two and was now making even more outrageous stipulations that Bruce had to agree to in order to be his roommate.

Even though neither of them had any choice over their living arrangements.

"... and finally all guests must be approved by moi."

"What guests? The only other people who would come by here are our new teammates." Bruce questioned exasperatedly.

"My point exactly. Anyway I'm excited I think this is going to be alot of fun."

"Loads" groaned Bruce as he shrunk into the couch with his head in his hands.

"What's his problem?" Tony asked seemingly no one.

Meanwhile in a far away place a figure sat alone in a dark room facing a bulletin board with various pictures on it.

Pictures included candid shots of Iron Man, Captain America, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Thor, and a picture of Hulk in the middle. All of the pictures however had a big red x drawn on them.

"I will find you and I will eliminate you. And then I set my sights on every other super powered freak in this city."


	8. Downtime part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These next two chapters take place in the couple of days the team has off because repairs needed to be made to the school due to Hulk smashing the place up and what not.

Steve Rogers was an always an early riser back before his rather large and extremely long ice bath, part of the reason was because of the super serum but it was mainly because he was just one of those people who liked to have a routine set in place and that routine involved him waking up early.

But when Fury told Natasha to tell the team that they all had a couple of days off the teenaged super soldier saw a prime opportunity to sleep in and relax. Sure he had been 'asleep' for 67 years straight just a few days before but contrary to what he told Natasha all the hardships and mental angst associated with waking up in a new era and being chucked into the middle of a super hero fraternity did take a toll on him. 

So when he was facedown in his pillow sound asleep drooling slight and his blasted alarm clock started to ring very loudly his eyes popped open and he shot a death glare at the clock. He forcibly pressed the snooze button on his alarm deciding it wouldn't be worth it if he smashed it to pieces and plopped his head back on the pillow.

Steve happily re-entered the land of sleep but was again forcibly reawakened by his alarm clock. After a couple minutes he flopped out of his bed and looked for some clothes. He put on some grey sweatpants and a white t-shirt as he exited his bedroom walked into the bathroom.

His hair was a little messy so he took some gel that S.H.I.E.L.D supplied him and smoothed it out. He also brushed his teeth and washed his face with some water. Soldiers tended to be very tedious when it came to things like hygiene and old habits die hard. He stepped out and noticed a fully clothed Natasha sitting on the couch reading something.

"That's not supprising, she is a world class spy after all." Steve thought to himself.

He made his way over to the couch and sat next to her, she looked up from her reading smiling at him briefly before she went back to her reading.

"You sleep well?" Steve asked trying to start a conversation.

"Yes I did actually, and you?" Natasha returned not looking up from her magazine.

"Good. How long have you been up?"

"About an hour".

Steve looked at his watch and noticed that it read 7:30.

"Guess I'm not only early riser here." Steve mused more to himself than anything.

"I'm not a big sleeper, I just sleep enough so I won't be tired throughout the day." Natasha further explained as she licked her thumb and turned the page.

They fell into an (awkward?) silence for a few minutes before Steve spoke up clearing his throat.

"Would you like some breakfast?"

Natasha looked up and put her magazine down.

"Sure." she smiled. In reality she already had a small breakfast but decided that she didn't really need to tell him that.

.................................

Thor walked out the door that led to the rooftop of their headquarters. He was having trouble sleeping in his small bed and figured that since it was morning it would be a good chance for him to get some fresh air.

He was now standing in front of the ledge of the roof which had a fantastic view of New York still dressed in the shirt and sweatpants that he had slept in. The particular borough that they were in didn't have that many industrial buildings and actually had many trees. Which, to Thor's delight, made the sky look clean and unpolluted.

Thor breathed in the fresh air and exhaled happily.

"Beautiful isn't it?"

Thor turned around and saw Clint leaning against the door leading back into the building.

"Yes it is Clint Barton. It's something you humans take for granted unfortunately.

Clint nodded in response.

"Yeah I know full well how ungrateful humans can be when it comes things to nature"

Thor chuckled lightly as he looked over his new roommate.

"Can I ask you a question Clint Barton?"

"Go ahead." he nodded. 

"I don't believe that I've seen you around the school before and neither has anyone else. You also conveniently showed up right when the Hulk attacked. Where were you before the attack?"

Clint sighed running a hand through his unkempt from sleep hair. He went over to ledge and sat down on it hanging his legs over the side.

"Sit down, it's a long story."

...............................................

Bruce was laying on his side in his bed and curled into a green blanket .

Tony on the other hand was laying his bed with a sleeping mask covering his eyes. A few minutes later Bruce woke up and groggily rubbed his eyes as he swung his legs over the side of his bed. He looked over at the clock and noticed that it read 7:45.

Bruce groaned as he walked over to Tony's door. Per the Stark Roomate Agreement it was his responsibility to wake Tony up every day at 7:45 exactly.

He knocked on the door lightly, and after he got no answer he knocked louder.

"Come on Stark rise and shine!"

Tony rose up from his bed and pulled his mask up from over his eyes. Yawned and blinking his eyes open he rolled out of his bed grabbing his toothbrush. He knocked open the door to his bedroom knocking his fifteen year old roomy onto his rear.

"Not bad mean green you woke me up a minute late though" said Tony as he walked into the bathroom.

"What did I do to deserve this?" Bruce thought shaking his head to himself.

"Oh yeah I forgot."  
...................................................

Steve had made eggs and bacon for dinner and was currently sitting at a small table in their kitchen across from Natasha. Who was thoughourly enjoying the eggs he made much to Steve's hidden delight.

"You like em?" Steve asked despite already knowing the answer.

"Yes I do! I didn't know you could cook." Natasha smiled as she daintly shoveled more food into her mouth.

"Yeah my mom taught me how before she died." Steve confessed with the slightest hint of pain in his voice that he tried his best to hide.

Natasha caught it nonetheless and put her fork down on her plate looking up to stare into Steve's eyes so he wouldn't be able to lie to her. Not that he had the ability to lie in the first place.

"Do you wanna talk about it?"

When she didn't get an immediate answer she took a calculated risk reaching across the table and grabbing his hand in order to force him to look at her.

"Do you?" she repeated.

"I didn't talk about it when she died, and frankly I don't wanna talk about it now." He answered as he looked right back at her straight in the eye. If it was a normal person they probably would have backed off from his commanding intense cobalt eyes but then again, Natasha wasn't normal. 

She just looked back with an equally steely glare.

"Holding it in won't do you any good Steve, trust me I know." Natasha still held his hand with her's.

They sat in silence for a couple of minutes before Natasha withdrew her hand from his. She was about to take her plate to the sink when Steve stopped her with a touch of the wrist and grabbed it for her taking both of their plates to the sink.

"Did your mom teach you to be a gentlemen too?" 

Steve laughed quietly to himself as he put the dishes in the sink.

"Yes she did actually, even though I'm still pretty terrible when it comes to girls."

"I think your doing a great job so far." She admitted truthfully with no reason to lie, see she could tell the truth when she wanted to. It just was rarely the smartest thing for her to do. 

Steve smiled shyly.

"Thank you, Natasha."

Natasha smiled back as she stood up.

"Your welcome. Come on let's go do some training".

"What about the others?" He asked as he washed his hands and dried them with a towel.

"They're big boys, they can find there own way if they want to."

..............................................

Thor and Clint were sitting on the ledge of the roof looking out into the surrounding borroughs.

"So Clint Barton, why don't you start from the beginning." Thor suggested.

"Well let's see it probably all started when I ran away from home and joined a carnival."


	9. Downtime part 2

Last time on "The Highschool Initiative: Year One".

"So Clint Barton why don't you start from the beginning" Thor suggested.

"Well let's see it probably all started when I ran away from home and joined a carnival."  
..................................................

"You see when I was very young both my parents died in a car accident. So me and my younger brother Barney, got put into a crappy little orphanage. We didn't end up staying long." 

When Thor nodded in understanding Clint continued.

"We ended up joining the Carson Carnival of Traveling Wonders, where I later became an assistant to a man named the Swordsman. He was actually the one who trained me and taught me everything I know about archery. But when I found out he was embezzling money from the carnival he beat me and left me for dead."

"After that I joined a couple of other circuses, fell into the wrong crowd and became an assassin." Thor raised his eyebrow at the archer who was busy looking down at his feet that were still hanging over the edge of the roof. 

"How old were you around that time?"

Clint looked up and furrowed his forehead as he tried to do the math in his head. "That was a little over two years ago, so fifteen. I was thirteen when I 'left' the carnival."

The young demigod could barely contain his shock. "While it is not unusual for warriors to be bred that young on Asgard I was under the impression that was not the case here on Midgard."

Clint smiled trying to reassure his new teammate but the smile couldn't quite reach up to his eyes. "It isn't. Like I said I fell into the wrong crowd. I've done a lot of things I can't ever be forgiven for."

Thor wanted to say something sensitive and comforting but the young demigod found he could not. So he turned his head straight away gazing at the early morning sky. 

"But somehow somebody important heard me of and they sent the Black Widow to recruit me to be a S.H.I.E.L.D agent- but that didn't work out so I tried going to school. You know, try and do things the right way. Get my education and all that." Clint mused scratching the side of his pajama pants unconsciously. 

"But that still does not explain why I have not seen you around the school, I tend to remember faces." Thor stated.

"The world, or Midgard as you call it, can be a rough place Thor. A lot of bad people are out there waiting to do bad things to good people. One day I just got tired of it, so I took some skills I learned from some of the carnies I grew up with to make my costume, if you want to call it that, and I took the bow and arrows S.H.I.E.L.D made for me when I was an agent and became a vigilante. But unfortunately being Hawkeye led to my grades dropping so the school kicked me out. I had nowhere to go so I figured hey I'll live in the school basement, which is how I heard the Hulk attack." Clint explained.

"The basement." Thor said skeptically.

"Nobody noticed me. I'm good at that."

"What happened to your brother?" Thor asked cautiously.

"I haven't spoken to him since the Swordsman betrayed me." Clint admitted rather somberly. The two sat in silence, the light breeze whistling in their faces. Finally after a few more minutes of more of just that Clint stretched his arms over his head and laid back on the roof, his face staring up at the sky.

"What about you big guy? What's your story?"

Thor couldn't stop the smirk forming on his own face.

"Well that my friend is also a long story."

...................................................

Tony stepped out of the bathroom now fully dressed,his hair now full of his signature hair product. Wearing jeans and a black sabbath t-shirt. He walked over to the couch and sat next to Bruce was on the couch snatching the remote, as he changed the channel.

"Hey I was watching that." a clearly agitated Bruce.

"Yeah and I just changed it." Tony said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Bruce sighed as he got up and went to the now unoccupied bathroom.

"What's up his ass?" Tony mused out loud as he changed the channel to a random wrestling show.

"They don't pay me enough." Bruce monologued as he squeezed some toothpaste onto his toothbrush and started brushing.

.....................................

Steve and Natasha were currently in the training room located in the basement of their headquarters. They both changed into training outfits which for Natasha meant a black tank top and shorts along with black fingerless gloves, and for Steve meant a sleeveless gray shirt with matching sweatpants.

"So what should we do first?" Steve asked testing the waters as they both stepped onto the large padded mat that encompassed the floor.

"Well I was thinking we could do a little combat pratice, you know sparring. If we're going to be on the same team it might help to learn each other's fighting styles so we could better compliment each other on the field." S.H.I.E.L.D's youngest agent 'suggested' as she stood across from Steve who coughed and rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

"Is that a problem?" Natasha challenged.

Steve coughed again this time a little more violently and quickly shook his head.

"No ma'am.. I mean Natasha! It's just that I was taught not to...... hit a dame"

Natasha raised her right eyebrow.

"I think I can handle myself Cap."

Steve quickly put his hands up in self-defense shaking his head for the third time in the short frame of time that they were down there.

"I didn't mean it like that." He knew full well that Natasha could take care of herself, in fact she could possibly be the toughest member of their whole team. Just like a certain someone he used to know. Natasha smiled at him lightly but still remained rather expressionless for the most part.

"Come on Steve try to attack me." She commanded as she put both her fists up.

Steve shrugged and charged at her. He swung a punch at her but she ducked and kicked him in the leg causing him to fall to one knee. She then gave him a swift kick to the chest which shocked him causing him to fall to the mat. Nat walked over to him and held her hand out.

"See, I can handle myself. Now this time really try." He looked up her and nodded when he took her hand. But instead of letting her help him up he used her momentum and flipped her onto her back on the mat and then covered her with his own body.

"That good enough?"

Natasha just smiled venomously.

"Now it's fun". She then used her powerful legs to push him off her and pounced on him.

....................................................

"So you're actually THE norse god Thor, the son of Odin?" a clearly surprised Barton exclaimed.

Thor smiled at him and nodded.

"Yes that is me.I was banished to earth due to my...... behavior, and I instantly fell in love with the planet. So made it my duty to do I everything I can to protect it."

Clint whistled.

"I thought you were just a crazy guy with powers" he chuckled.

Thor about to comment a retort when the door to the roof opened and out walked a fully dressed Bruce.

"Uh hey. Agent Romanoff wanted us all to come down to the basement. She says we have to go over a few things."

"We'll be right down my friend." Thor nodded at him as he and Clint picked themselves up off the ledge and followed the fifteen year old down the stairs.

.............................................

The Avengers were now fully assembled and sitting at the round table in the middle of the basement. Thor was leaning against the table with his arms crossed. Tony and Bruce were sitting at the two ends, Clint was sitting at the edge of the table and Steve was standing next to the table. They were all facing the standing Natasha who was explaining ther plans for tommorow when they go back to school the next day.

"Okay, school is back in session tomorrow and we all have classes with at least one of our teammates, and during the school day we are to stick together as much as possible so that just in case something happens we all have back-up." she said to the group.

Tony raised his hand after she finished.

"Um, excuse me teacher."

Natasha rolled her eyes.

"Yes Tony?"

She knew she was going to regret this.

"How are we suppoused to explain to our friends that we all suddenly each have five new friends?"

The rest of the team minus Steve nodded and voiced their agreements. Natasha was suprised Tony actually asked a good legitamite question but didn't let it visibly affect her.

"Well how many of your friends know you're Iron Man?"

Tony snorted slightly.

"Two."

Natasha nodded and turned towards the others.

"And the rest of you?".

"Two." Thor said.

"None." Clint answered which was unsuprising since he lived in the school basement.

Bruce didn't say anything at first but finally did once everyone turned to look at him.

"She knows."

This caused Tony's right eyebrow to go up but before he could ask the question burning through his mind but Natasha's voice interrupted him.

"Well that makes it easier. If you all can trust those people with your secret identities,then you can tell them the real reason you know each other as long as you are absolutely sure without the shadow of a doubt that they won't reveal the real reason to anyone else."

Tony raised his hand again causing Steve to rub his temples, Bruce to put his head in his hands, and Natasha to sigh.

"Yes Tony?"

"What about our living conditions, because I would much rather sleep in my cozy bedroom in my HUGE mansion, than in my subpar apartment with Pinky and the Brain over there." he ranted motioning towards Bruce. Normally if anybody else had said that Bruce would have been upset over but he wouldn't mind in the least if Tony spent his nights somewhere else.

"Unfortunately you have to spend your mornings and nights here to ensure we all make it to school without any problems. S.H.I.E.L.D's decision, not mine. But you're free to spend your days wherever you want when we're not in school as long as you have your phones or communicators on you. Which brings me to the last point of this meeting." She threw keys at Steve, Clint, and Thor.

They each picked one up and noticed that they were car keys.

"All of you minus Tony and Bruce have been given a specific vehicle that you can use to transport you wherever you need to go. Compliments of S.H.I.E.L.D."

Tony once again raised his hand to everyone's vocal annoyance.

"I understand why he doesn't get one cause he's fifteen, but why don't I get one?"

Natasha smirked.

"Well that's because we transported your very expensive car to our garage." She pointed towards Tony's parked red ferrari.

"Oh." Tony shut up when he saw his cherished car.

Natasha then turned back towards the rest of the group.

"Now all of you go back to your rooms. We've got a big day tomorrow."

.............................................................

Meanwhile in an unknown location a figure was standing in front of a bulletin board. On the board there was a picture of the Avengers battling the Hulk.

"I will find out who you are."


	10. Back To School

A vintage black motorcycle zipped down the streets of New York narrowly maneuvering through traffic while still abiding by the speed limit. It was driving in the direction of Lee High School and once it reached it's destination it swiftly drove in front of some walking students-who voiced their grievances in a rather profane matter-and parked in an open parking space.

The passenger stepped off first and removed her helmet to reveal the intoxicating red-hair of a one Natasha Romanoff who was dressed in a red t-shirt and tight black jeans. The driver, Steve, pulled his keys out of the bike and followed suit.He took both their helmets and placed them safely on the bike's seat. The leader of the Avengers was dressed in a blue polo shirt and blue jeans.

He was also- at the persistence of a certain eccentric inventor- now sporting a slightly new haircut which was spiked up in the front. According to Tony it was supposed to make Steve look less "military" according to Tony.

"I'm still not sure about this new haircut." Steve voiced as he nervously touched his hair for what must have been the millionth time that morning . His roommate, who had been forced to hear said concerns all morning, shot him a rather annoyed but assuring look.

"You look fine, stop worrying. Trust me it could be worse." 

A black Honda pick-up truck into the open space next to them. The driver and passenger side doors opened and out stepped Thor and Bruce Banner. Thor was dressed in a tight fitting black t-shirt and torn blue jeans while Bruce was more simply dressed in a plain white t-shirt and khakis.

"Greetings my friends! Are you ready to return to our education?" Thor boomed as he and Bruce walked over to the two other Avengers.

"Yeah, I'm real excited about being stuffed into lockers and later turning into the Hulk only to be subdued by you guys." Bruce tried to joke but the legitimate concern, malice and guilt in his voice was easy to catch. 

Steve patted the younger Avenger lightly on his shoulder.

"Don't worry Bruce we'll make sure nothing happens to you." Thor also patted Bruce's shoulder which caused Bruce to understandably flinch. "Most assuredly Bruce Banner."

Natasha looked around and noticed that they were still missing two people. "Where's Stark and Barton?"

"They were right behind us" Bruce answered looking over his shoulder. Just as those words left his mouth the quiet humdrum of students entering the high school was replaced by the booming sound of AC DC's Shoot to Thrill blaring through the speakers of a certain red Ferrari, which whipped right into the spot right next to Thor's truck.

The driver's side flipped open and the one and only Tony Stark slid out. The brilliant but hot headed teen was dressed in a Metallica t-shirt and black jeans. He was also of course sporting shades along with his famous smirk.

"What took so long Stark?" Natasha questioned sternly as he strolled up to join the group. Tony's shades fell to his nose as he flashed them a questioning and seemingly innocent look.

"Who me? I stopped for breakfast" he stated as he took a huge bite out of a strawberry donut he pulled out of the Dunkin Donuts bag in his hand.

"Hey did you bring any for us?" Bruce whined as Thor drooled at the sight of the pastry. Tony shot them a sheepish grin.

"Oh you see they only had one donut left." None of them believed him for the fraction of a second but none of them felt the actual need to call him out on his bullshit so they just arched their eyebrows at Tony and shook their heads collectively. 

"Whatever. Where's Barton?" Steve asked.

"I thought he was with you."

"Well there's nothing we can do now, we should head to our first period classes." Natasha reasoned.They determined the previous day when they were sharing information that while not only did Tony and Steve share the same first period classes, Thor and Bruce also did as well.

After saying some quiet and brief goodbyes, they all split up and went to their respective classes. Steve and Tony were walking next to each other towards their Algebra class, walking in silence until Tony decided to break it.

"Nice haircut Rogers, you almost look normal." The young inventor remarked. 

"Thanks... I think." Steve still wasn't sure what to think of Tony, according to Natasha he was a narcissistic, annoying, and arrogant brat. But he himself wasn't quite sure what to think of him.

"So you sure you and Agent Romanoff don't have something going on?" Tony asked as they walked into the classroom and sat in the same seats they did a couple days beforehand.

"Why are you so interested?" Steve retorted.They were both sitting in front of one of the three windows in the room so sunlight was shining onto their backs.

"That isn't a no." Tony pointed out as he set his red and black backpack on the ground next to his chair. Steve rolled his eyes in response.

"Why do you want to know so bad? Are you interested in her?" he asked as he also set his blue and white backpack on the ground next to his chair.

"There's not many attractive women that I'm not. Though she seems a little.... tempered for my taste." the teenager otherwise known as Iron Man stated truthfully.

Well Steve couldn't knock his honesty- at least that's what he thought to himself. He of course wasn't going to tell that to Tony.

Tony was going to interrogate Steve further but right as class was about to start the intercom in the room buzzed.

"Excuse me Mr. Kirby. Can you please send Steve Rogers and Anthony Stark to Vice-Principal Coulson's office as soon as possible?"

"Sure thing." yelled Mr. Kirby before he looked down Steve and Tony. "You heard her, you better get going." They both nodded and walked out the door and headed in the direction of the vice-principal's office. Steve didn't know the lay out that well but Tony sure seemed to so he shut up and followed.

"Wow sent to office on the second day, that's a new record for me. Hell school hasn't even technically started yet, that must be a record for anyone." Tony mused as they turned a corner in the hallway. 

"Why would we be sent to the office on our second day of school?" Steve was obviously confused but Tony declined to address his teammate's concerns as they reached the door to Coulson's office.

"Age before beauty." Tony said as he motioned for Steve to open the door, he glared at Tony but opened the door nonetheless. When they both walked into the office they were met with a big surprise however.

Natasha, Bruce, and Thor were all inside of the office waiting for the two, Coulson was sitting behind his desk while Thor was standing against a wall with his arms crossed , Natasha and Bruce were sitting in chairs seated across from the desk.

"Mr. Rogers, Mr. Stark glad you could join us." Coulson said as he waved for the two to step inside. Steve sat down in a chair next to Natasha while Tony stood up against a far wall burying his hands in his pockets.

"Now I'm sure Ms. Romanoff has already explained this to the Captain, but let me bring the rest of you up to speed." the other avengers minus Natasha looked surprised at the vice-principal's comment especially at the fact that he called Steve "Captain" but nobody verbalized this.

"My name is Agent Philip Coulson of S.H.I.E.L.D. And from now on you all report to me." Everyone reacted in silent shock, everyone too stunned to say anything. Everyone except Natasha of course, and Steve since she already told him this information. 

Tony shook his head and laughed.

"You're kidding me right. Vice principal Coulson is an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D! OK I know I'm being punked. Where are the cameras?"

Natasha rolled her eyes shaking her head at Stark's outburst. Coulson sighed at the young hero.

"Unfortunately Mr. Stark I'm not kidding, S.H.I.E.L.D planted me into this school to recruit and guide heroes like yourself. Since most heroes in this community are teens and attend this school, it was the logical thing to do."

After the collective of heroes didn't say anything he continued. 

"Now since crime doesn't abide by school rules, when there is an incident I will be able to pull one, some, or all of you out of class. As a cover you will all be apart of a special program where "gifted" students meet and discuss subjects, and do special projects."

"Well that sucks." Tony scoffed as Steve was just one of many that day who shook his head at the hero's behavior. Coulson once again sighed as he slowly felt a migraine headache take over.

"It's just a cover, you won't actually be doing any of those things. Anyway, where is Mr. Barton?"

The whole team was silent as they each looked at each other.

"That is a good question."  
...........................................................................

Clint was sitting at a table in front of a Starbucks with a newspaper in his hands. He was reading an article about a young crime-fighter who swung from building to building and would tie muggers and burglars in webs and leave them for the police.

But then all of a sudden he heard sirens and the sound of a bank alarm. He quickly stood up, leaving his newspaper on the table and put his purple shades on. He then put his finger to the communicator in his ear.

"Hey Natasha, I've got a situation in progress, and some back-up sure would be nice." he said as he took his suit and crossbow out of his bag.

"Where the hell are you?"

"In a minute I'll be at Central Bank, just send some back-up pretty please."

......................................................................................................

"There's a situation at Central Bank that Hawkeye is heading towards and he says he might need some back-up." Natasha told the rest of the occupants in the office.

"I can send one of you to determine how serious the situation is and whether or not the rest of you are needed or not." Coulson determined after a minute.

"Well who should we send? Since I can't really control the other guy at the moment." Bruce chipped in. 

The whole room was silent until Tony coughed.

"Fine I'll go, beats school." he said as started to walk out the door. 

"Remember to report whether you need back-up or not!" Coulson softly yelled.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah....." 

Tony closed the door behind him and leisurely exited the school, whistling to himself along the way. Once he was out of sight he pressed a button on his watch and his body in the blink of an eye became covered in his Iron Man Mark 3 armor. He had JARVIS set power to his rockets and he flew off in the direction of Central Bank.

...............................................................................................................

Hawkeye ran to the back of the Central Bank hugging the side of the building as he made his way around crouching behind a car when he reached the front. Peeking over the top of the car he noticed a large figure in a dark red suit pointing his glove at a bank teller who was filling money into a sack.

"Hurry with the money, I have places to be." 

The teller handed the figure sack and the robber blasted the glass front doors to the bank open. His metallic boots clanking loudly as he walked out.

"Hold it right there."

The figure froze and looked off towards the direction of the voice. He focused his visor and his sensor caught a purple clad figure with shades pointing a bow and arrow at him.

"Do you honestly think the Crimson Dynamo is afraid of a puny little arrow?" The Crimson Dynamo boasted, his accent heavy and slow. 

Hawkeye only smirked.

"Right now, you should be." He then quickly fired three arrows at Crimson Dynamo catching him by surprise, but once the arrows did nothing more than stick to his suit he started to chuckle.

He was cut short however when the arrows started flashing and then exploded.

A puff of smoke was now where the Dynamo was standing and Hawkeye lowered his bow but still had an arrow primed just in case. When the smoke cleared the Crimson Dynamo was still standing in the exact same spot completely unscathed.

"You cannot stop the Crimson Dynamo!" He fired a plasma blast at Hawkeye who jumped away at the last second resulting in the destruction of the car he was hiding behind. The archer ran and slid behind another car. He leaned over and fired a couple more arrows at him, all of them barely affecting the Dynamo.

Dynamo blasted the car and Hawkeye ducked and rolled into Dynamo's blind spot and fired a special arrow that sent an electric shock throughout Dynamo's suit. But Dynamo recovered quickly and smashed his fist into the ground blasting a shockwave into Hawkeye which sent him flying onto a nearby car.

"Shit."

He walked up to the car and grabbed the archer by his head and started to slowly squeeze. "Let's see if I can crush your little head like a grape." 

Dynamo however was blasted in the back before he could do so causing him to drop Hawkeye onto the ground. When he turned around Iron Man flew into him punching him into the wall of the bank.

Iron Man landed on his feet and pointed his glove at the Crimson Dynamo. 

"I see you got a new suit, looks a little too Soviet Union esque for me though."

Dynamo stood up and pointed his own glove at Iron Man. "Trust me this suit is much stronger than you think."

"Yeah I'm sure. Hey Widow I think I'm fine without the back-up."

"You'll regret that." Dynamo blasted a bolt of electricity at Iron Man who tried to block it but still surged throughout his suit.

"AAHH!" 

After a couple minutes of searing pain he was able to recover and he quickly lifted his gauntlet to fire back but nothing came out. 

"Energy levels at zero percent."

"Just perfect." Iron Man remarked. Dynamo then blasted him knocking the wind out of him and flew towards him punching him into a parked car.

"Hey Natasha, scratch that, some back-up would be greatly appreciated." 

The Crimson Dynamo walked towards Iron Man and put his glowing glove to the hero's helmet.

"Say goodbye, Iron Man."


	11. Round 2

"Say goodbye, Iron Man."

The Crimson Dynamo charged his glove set to destroy Iron Man when an arrow suddenly lodged it itself in the center of the glove where the laser blast would of shot out of.

"What the..." The Dynamo turned the glove towards his face to examine it, the arrow beeped giving the villain only a moment's warning before it exploded right in his helmet covered face.

This gave Iron Man the distraction he needed as he charged at the Crimson Dynamo and tackled him onto the car Hawkeye had previously been on. When the armored super-hero looked up he saw said archer slumped against a light pole. 

"Thanks Legolas." Iron Man said looking over at Hawkeye who slowly nodded back.

But before either of them could react further Dynamo sprung up and lifted Iron Man using the element of surprise and his own momentum to throw his nemesis at Hawkeye, the force of the impact knocked over the light pole trapping the bowman under his ironclad teammate. The Dynamo looked at his now broken glove and yelled in rage.

"That costed the Crimson Dynamo a rather large sum of money!" he roared as he aimed his other glove at the two heroes "You will both pay dearly for that."

The Dynamo was just about to blast the two Avengers when a lightning bolt came from the sky and hit the ground between the villain and the heroes.

The Crimson Dynamo covered his visor with his glove to protect his eyesight from the near blinding lightning. When he moved his glove he saw Thor swinging his hammer above his head and Captain America and the Black Widow on either side of him.

Three other members of the Avengers.

"Surrender mortal, and I shall show you mercy." Thor growled as Cap and Widow went to check on Iron Man and Hawkeye.

The Crimson Dynamo responded by fireing at Thor with an ion blast which Thor deflected easily with his hammer.

"You humans never learn." Thor sighed as he deflected a couple more plasma blasts and charged at the Dynamo. "Have at thee!".

Cap and Widow had propped Hawkeye and Iron Man up against a crushed car that Dynamo wrecked. "You two okay?" Widow asked as the two injured heroes slowly regained consciousness. "Oh I've got a few broken ribs, a broken ankle or two, and maybe even a concussion. But other than that everything's peachy." Iron Man joked as Hawkeye coughed violently.

Thor was easily dominating Crimson Dynamo, whenever the mech would try to strike the god of thunder,Thor would block it with his hammer and on the back swing knock off a small part of Dynamo's bulky armor. When Dynamo tried to hit him with an uppercut Thor knocked his hand to the side with his hammer and swung upwards with it flipping him up into the air and then back on the ground.

The norse god held his hammer to the sky and bolts of electricity rained down onto Mljonir surging it with power. "I would suggest that you stay down now." 

Dynamo stood up. "You cannot stop the Crimson Dynamo!"

"You were warned."

Thor pointed his surging hammer at Dynamo and fired an incredible blast of lightning.Dynamo however made no attempt to block or avoid it as the blast hit him dead on causing his whole suit to convulse and surge with energy. After a few minutes Dynamo's still standing and now smoking body slumped over. Thor lowered his hammer and started to slowly walk towards the vulnerable Crimson Dynamo.

But then all of a sudden Dynamo snapped back into a standing position and fired a powerful ion blast at the suprised god sending him flying. Thor landed a few feet away from Iron Man and Hawkeye, his hammer a few feet from himself. Dynamo pointed his glove at the fallen god charged it to fire.

He stopped when bullets rained onto his armor like bugs on a moving car window. He turned and fired at the source of the annoying pellets, the Black Widow who rolled away at the last second and continued to fire from her twin guns. Dynamo was ready to fire again when a shield hit the back of his armored neck causing his whole helmet to ring.

The owner of said shield Captain America jumped on Dynamo's back, the thug tried to swing him off but Cap had a death grip on his neck and tried his best to twist and take off the Dynamo's helmet. Widow charged at Dynamo guns blazing but Dynamo was able to grab Cap's arms and throw him off of his back and onto the charging Widow.

The Crimson Dynamo would get no rest however as he felt more bullets hit his armor. He turned and noticed a few police officers hiding crouched behind two parked police cars. They continued to fire at Dynamo but it had little affect on him so he casually fired electric ion blasts at the cars causing an explosion as the officers fled.

Mjolnir slowly vibrated and flew back into the crouched Thor's hand. Just when he was going to stand up he felt a steel hand on his shoulder. He turned and saw a slightly battered Iron Man.

"Hey Fabio. you control electricity right?".

Thor blinked.

"Yes, I can control both thunder and lightning."

Tony grinned under his helmet, "Can you fire some at me then?."

To say that Thor was shocked would be a tremendous understatement.

"Why in the name of the gods would you want to do that?".

Iron Man was motionless for a second (Thor made a rather educated guess that he was smirking underneath the helmet) before he replied. "Trust me."

Thor just shrugged and charged his hammer with electricity again, and once it got to a certain level he fired it at Iron Man. The god cringed as his comrade arched his back when the electricity hit him. Tony yelled as the searing element shook his whole body, Thor shook his head regretfully and stopped his bolt dropping his hammer to his side. Iron Man froze completely after his body crumpled much the same way the Crimson Dynamo did when Thor shocked him. A second later his eyes started to glow and his body snapped into an upright position.

"Power levels at 103 percent." Jarvis announced inside Iron Man's helmet.

Tony quickly powered up the rockets in his boots and he flew off towards the Crimson Dynamo who was pounding on Cap's shield. Iron Man punched him knocking his foe into the now empty Central Bank. When they landed Iron Man put his boots to Dynamo's chest and powered his jets propelling himself off of him and engulfing Dynamo's armored chest in flames.

"Enough! The Crimson Dynamo will finally end Iron Man!" Dynamo jumped up and fired an impressive beam of energy from his chest at the source of his rage.

"And here I thought we had something special." Iron Man retorted as he fired his uni-beam from to counter Dynamo's.

Sparks were flying as the two beams met and the light given off from them both was nearly blinding. It was a power struggle as the two beams fought for dominance, when one beam seemed to grow stronger and grow closer to it's master's enemy said enemy would put more energy into his own beam and then it would take control.

Meanwhile the rest of the Avengers gathered at the hole Dynamo made at the front of the bank.

"There has to be some way we can help him." Cap said as they watched the struggle between their comrade and their enemy.

"He's right, at this rate they'll be doing this forever." Hawkeye agreed taking his bow back out snapping it open. Thor started to rapidly swing his hammer at his side and Widow reloaded her gun. Cap however only put his hand up.

"Hold up, we need to come up with a plan. If we go in guns blazing we could get Iron Man killed."

Thor stopped swinging his hammer but kept it at his side and Hawkeye restrained from firing an arrow at Dynamo.

"If we can distract Dynamo we should be able to give Iron Man the advantage he needs." Widow deduced. A small smile formed on Cap's face.

"Alright then. Widow and Hawkeye you two attack Dynamo from behind and then when got him distracted Thor and I will move in." The other avengers nodded. "Avengers! Attack!"

Hawkeye and Widow positioned themselves in Dynamo's blindspot and waited for Cap's signal.

"NOW!"

Widow fired her twin Glock 26s at Dynamo's back while Hawkeye fired three exploding arrows into the same area.

"What..." Dynamo stopped and turned towards the two avengers when he felt the tiny twinge from the attacks. This gave Iron Man the chance to fire a powerful fully charged uni-beam at Dynamo's back sending him through the wall of the bank back onto the streets as Widow and Hawkeye jumped out of the way. Cap, Thor, and Iron Man ran out the hole in the wall after the Dynamo. He got back up somewhat hobbled and from what the heroes could tell he now had a small burnt hole in the armor on his back.

"Avengers his weakspot is his back, aim for the center of his back plate!" Cap ordered as the Avengers now joined by Hawkeye and Widow charged at the Crimson Dynamo. Dynamo quickly swatted away Hawkeye while Widow jumped on his back only to be thrown at Thor. Iron Man flew to his blind side and blasted Dynamo in the back allowing Cap to hit him in the chin with his shield knocking him off his feet. Iron Man landed on the ground and charged with Cap at the downed villain.

When they got close Dynamo blasted the two with his chest beam knocking them away. He stood up and was about to fire at the downed heroes when Black Widow once again jumped on his back but this time she stabbed a knife into his weak spot causing him to scream in pain. She kicked herself off his back sending him into Thor who smashed his hammer into Dynamo's chest causing the villain to lurch forward and then Thor uppercutted him smacking his chin up. The force of the hit made Dynamo do a flip in the air until he landed hard on the ground, finally knocked unconscious.

The Avengers rendezvoused at the Crimson Dynamo's unconcious form. They all-except for Thor who belted out a hearty victory cry- breathed a sigh of relief.

"We need a S.H.I.E.L.D prison transport, the threat at Central Bank has been subdued." Widow spoke into the communicator in her ear.

Iron Man sat down onto Dynamo's back and lifted his faceplate to reveal a patented Tony Stark smirk.

"Yup, definitely beats the hell out of school."

........................................................................................................................................................................................

A few minutes later S.H.I.E.L.D arrived closing off Central street and agents were loading a cuffed and unmasked Crimson Dynamo onto a prison transport truck. The Avengers were now sitting around an ambulance now sporting various bandages in appropiate places. Clint who was sitting on the bumper of the ambulance was the most banged up out of the bunch.

"Gennady Gavrillov, a Russian collegiate. It says here he is the eighth Crimson Dynamo- the first being a Mr. Anton Vanko. It also says you have some experience with both Tony." Natasha informed the team as she looked over a file given to her by a fellow S.H.I.E.L.D agent. Tony gave her a somewhat tired smirk.

"Yeah every year or so it seems they make a new Crimson Dynamo and send him here to destroy me. They seem to become more and more dangerous, but also they become stupider and stupider." he said motioning towards the damaged bank.

"It does seem a little dumb to rob a bank with a suit that powerful." Clint mused as a paramedic put a bandage on his forehead.

"There has to be an ulterior motive in here somewhere." Steve said as he rubbed his chin. They were interrupted when they heard the yells of people and the flashing of cameras. Tony put his faceplate on instinctively and the team noticed that there were several reporters behind the yellow crime scene tape who were being held back by police officers.

"It seems that we have caught the eye of the public." Thor said. Natasha nodded in agreement but she slowly stopped when she remembered something she wanted to ask so she turned towards Clint arching her eyebrow.

"Oh yeah, where the hell were you? Coulson re-enrolled you in school."

Clint was going to make up an excuse when he finally noticed that someone was missing.

"Wait where's Banner?".

"He's still at school." Steve answered as a horrible revelation dawned on Tony.

"Avengers report back to school immediately, it's only 3rd period...school's still in session." Coulson said over their shared comlink as Tony groaned throwing his back.

"Damn it."

.................................................................................................................................................

Meanwhile in a distant New York alley a homeless person was scrounging around when a black cat scurried in front of him.

"Uh-oh, bad luck." 

No sooner then that the man looked up and noticed that what seemed to be a meteor was heading right towards him. He quickly ran out of the alley as the meteor hit in a flash of light.

The man covered his eyes to protect his vision after he hid behind a dumpster.Once the light subsided and the man believed it was safe he walked out from behind the dumpster and slowly mad his way towards the crater in the alley that the meteor formed. When he reached the hole he noticed that there was a man crouching in the crater.

"Hey you okay mister?"

The figure's eyes blinked open. He had long black hair and wore a black trench coat.

"Oh I'm perfect. Thor my dear brother, I do hope you missed me." Loki said as he laughed maniacally.


	12. Back to School Again

When the Avengers returned to school they found Coulson was right as it was only the end of 2nd period which meant that they got back just before lunch started. A fact that comforted Tony to some extent but didn't make him any less unhappy.

"I still think we should get the rest of the day off, I mean we almost got killed by a super villain like 5 minutes ago!" Tony whined as his teammates tried to quiet him before they walked back into school.

"Are you trying to blow our cover Stark?" Clint asked with clenched teeth as he put his hand over Tony's mouth. He muffled something from underneath Clint's hand but no one could understand him so Natasha looked at the archer and gave him an annoyed look which caused him to release his hand.

"I said my bad." Tony breathed as the group rolled their eyes and walked into the school leaving him behind. He looked up after he regulated his breathing a second later and ran after them. "Hey wait for me!"

5 out of the 6 Avengers walked into the high school and walked towards the lunch room.

"So do I have to sit with you guys at lunch or can I sit with people I actually wanna sit with?" Tony asked obnoxiously as they walked. Natasha lightly rubbed her temples before she decided to designate his question with an answer.

"It'll help us develop as a team if we get to know each other, and what better way to do that then to sit together at lunch. But you can bring a trusted friend or two, especially ones that can help us in anyway."

They all entered the busy lunchroom and noticed that their regular friends beckoning them.

"Okay grab your best friend and we'll meet at that table outside under the tree." Natasha decreed as they split up to get their food and their friends. Thor went to Jane and Erick, while Tony went to Rhodey and Pepper. Natasha, Steve, and Clint went to go Bruce.

"Thor! Where have you been?" Jane who was standing next to Erick by the vending machines asked.

Thor gave them both a sheepish look. "I'll explain in a more private area. But there are some people I want you two to meet so let us get some nourishment and be on our way, shall we." The two looked at him a little skeptically but followed him regardless.

Meanwhile Tony walked up behind Rhodey and Pepper who were grabbing food and putting them on their trays. The two were trying their best to ignore their billionaire friend but it proved to be very difficult.

"What do you want Tony?" sighed Rhodey as he put an apple on his tray. Tony noticed the hint of exasperation and annoyance so he raised his right eyebrow at his best friend. "Did I do something wrong?".

Pepper snorted. "What would make you say that? It's not like you didn't talk to and avoided your two best friends for two whole days without any sort of explanation or anything." she grumbled as she grabbed a bottle of lemonade. Tony made an "o" shape with his mouth.

"Well you see I was going to tell you guys but I had some "special business" to attend to. And there's some people you guys need to meet. Their associated with you "know who" so go pay for your food and let's go meet em." Tony smiled as he put his pinkish red shades on.

Pepper looked at Rhodey who shrugged lightly and bit her lip. She looked back at Tony who was shooting a toothy grin at them both and sighed. "Fine... Tony we'll go with you." Tony smiled and lifted her up into a hug and then looked at Rhodey and kissed him on the cheek. The young man tried to hit Tony with his tray but he hid behind Pepper.

"Truce." Tony offered as Pepper rolled her eyes but giggled lightly. Rhodey hesitantly and begrudgingly nodded.

"Fine... but if you come near me with those lips again I'll smack the taste out your mouth." he said as he pointed a finger at Tony.

"Scouts honor, now come on let's get going already!"

The three payed for their food and walked towards the table outside at the far end of the food court under the tree. The table was large and could fit about a dozen people. Steve, Natasha, Clint, and Erick were sitting on one side while Thor, Jane, Bruce, and Betty were sitting on the other side.

"What up homies, this is Pepper and Rhodey, Pepper and Rhodey these are my homies." Tony joked sitting down next Bruce while his teammates shook their heads and Jane, Betty, and Erick looked at him strangely. Nonetheless Natasha looked at the two newcomers and gave them a small smile.

"Hi, I'm Natasha." The other Avengers and their associates then each took turns introducing themselves.

"I'm Steve Rogers." he said with a smile.

"Clint Barton." he said coolly with a small nod.

"Bruce Banner."

"And I am Thor Son of Odin!".

Pepper and Rhodey looked at him rather curiously while Jane smiled to herself. "I'm Jane Foster I'm a uh friend of Thor" she said with a very slight blush.

"I'm Erick Selvick." he said shaking Rhodey's hand and nodding at Pepper.

"I'm Betty Ross, I'm Bruce's friend." the younger girl said.

Pepper smiled at her and then looked at Natasha, Jane, and Betty. "Hey aren't you three in my Health class?"

"Yeah I think so." Jane said as Betty nodded. Natasha interrupted them before they could continue. "I don't mean to interrupt but there is something you all should know."

Jane, Erick, Betty, Pepper, and Rhodey all turned towards her intently interested at what she was going to say next. "As I'm sure you all know Thor and Tony are both super-heroes as Thor is the god of thunder and Tony is Iron Man. But the rest of us are also heroes."

"You mean there's more of you." a surprised Rhodey said.

"I'm the Black Widow, Bruce is the Hulk, Clint is Hawkeye, and Steve is an old war hero Captain America." the red-head continued. Erick looked at Bruce completely shocked.

"Your the one who destroyed part of the school!" this caused Pepper and Jane to gasp.

"That was you?" Pepper asked.

"It's okay Bruce." Betty reassured her friend as he looked down.

"Yep that was me..." before he could further explain himself someone came up from behind him grabbed his applesauce and crushed it. Bruce looked up and saw it was Cade who had his left arm in a sling and had his two friends behind him.

"You and me have some unfinished business, freak." he said as he grabbed Bruce by his collar. No sooner then he did that Thor, Steve, Clint, Tony, and Rhodey all stood up and moved behind Cade and his goons.

"If I were you I'd leave him alone." Steve warned.

Cade and his friends turned around and saw 5 rather fit individuals staring the three down. When Cade looked at Thor the god smirked and laughed menacingly at him. Cade let go of Bruce and sneered at the heroes. He and his friends then left to go sit at their own table. Thor patted Bruce on the shoulder as the boys sat back in their seats. Once everyone was settled in Pepper looked over at Tony.

"But that still doesn't explain where've you been the past couple of days." Tony was about to answer but Steve chimed in first.

"You see a government organization named S.H.I.E.L.D brought us together as a team to help combat the growing crime in the world. And we all had to get acquainted with our new headquarters." Tony nodded in agreement a little to quickly.

"So that's why you've been gone." Pepper decided looking towards Tony who quickly nodded again.

"Now you know you can't tell anyone this." Natasha said towards Jane, Pepper, Rhodey, and Erick. They all nodded and she nodded back at them. "Tomorrow wait outside school and we'll pick you up and take you to our headquarters, remember you can't tell anyone."

The group spent the rest of the lunch period eating and getting to know each other and a while later the bell rang signaling the end of lunch.

Tony, Rhodey, and Clint went off in the direction of their history class while Jane, Pepper, and Betty went off in the direction of their Trigonometry class and finally Steve, Natasha, Thor, Bruce, and Erick went off in the direction of their Chemistry class.

The five were walking down the hallway leisurely since the class was on the first floor. They walked mainly in silence until they made it into Pym's room. Bruce and Erick sat in the first row and Steve, Natasha, and Thor sat in the second.

"Okay class we have a double period today so for the first period I want you all to get in pairs or in some cases groups of three for this next lab assignment, and we'll take some notes." Pym said as he passed out lab sheets after the bell rang. Steve and Natasha paired up while Bruce, Erick, and Thor were a trio.

"So you want to be the recorder or the experimenter?" Steve asked Natasha who tapped her chin with her finger.

"Experimenter." she said with a smile as they walked over to one of the lab stations. Today they had to determine if various household items were acids or bases and what their ph number is. No sooner had Natasha put a drop of hand sanitizer in a petri dish a slender young brunette dressed in formal wear walked through the door.

"Is Bruce Banner and Natasha Romanoff in here?" she asked to which Pym nodded. "I need them both to come with me to vice-principal Coulson's office."

"You heard her, better get moving. Erick you go work with Richards and Thorton you can work with Rogers." Pym said moving his head towards the woman.

"No rest for the weary." Natasha sighed as she stood up.

"Good luck." Steve whispered to which Natasha only winked as she joined Bruce and the woman. Her seat was soon taken by a certain god of thunder.

"Greetings friend." he breathed as he got comfortable in his chair. Steve nodded at him before they both stared down at the experiment.

"You have any idea how to do this?" Steve asked as the two turned and looked at each other. Thor shook his head "Sadly no, Erick Selvig or Jane Foster usually helped me."

"They didn't teach this back in the forties." the super soldier sighed. The two heroes looked at each other and then looked back down at the experiment.

"It appears as you humans say that we are at an impass."

............................................................................................................................................................

The woman who revealed herself as Maria Hill an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D led the two into Coulson's office where Clint was already sitting in a chair across from Coulson.

"Small world," the archer said.

"Apparently." Bruce remarked.

Natasha ignored the two and looked over at Coulson. "What's wrong?"

Coulson was hesistant but spoke after a second or two.

"There was recently a large fluxuation of cosmic energy on the other side of town that S.H.I.E.L.D couldn't identify. So we're sending Banner, Barton, Agent Hill and yourself to investigate it. Mr. Banner, S.H.I.E.L.D is providing you with some of the best equipment in identifying cosmic energy so please try not to break it."

Bruce lightly smirked at him. "No problem I always love new toys." His time as Tony Stark's roomate was really starting to affect him.

"Okay I get why he's going but why do you need us?" Clint interrupted causing Coulson to rub his forehead. Coulson wondered why he always got stuck with the blunt sarcastic ones.

"In order to avoid another Hulk fiasco you're being sent to protect Banner. No offense."

"Oh none taken, it sounded like a compliment." Bruce stated to which Natasha raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah I'm scaring myself too."

Natasha gave him a sympathetic look but rolled her eyes nonetheless.

"Whatever. We better get moving. Avengers Assemble!"


	13. A Questioning Answer

Brooklyn, New York was as buzzing as it ever was, even in the middle of a school day.

Various cars and people went in all kind of directions towards their desired destinations. One such vehicle, a government issued black sedan, turned into a mostly empty alley and parked next to a dumpster. 

The four passengers stepped out they were; agent of S.H.I.E.L.D Maria Hill, "Hawkeye" Clint Barton, Bruce Banner, and finally the "Black Widow" Natasha Romanoff. Hill walked around to the back of the sedan and pulled out a rather bulky looking device with a screen, a keyboard, and a vacuum looking contraption attached to it from the trunk of the vehicle.

"Mr Banner this is for you. S.H.I.E.L.D created it to help you locate and contain any cosmic energy in the area." Hill said handing Bruce the device. The young lad nodded as he pressed a few buttons on the keyboard, activating and calibrating the device. Behind them Hawkeye flipped open his bow while Widow cocked her two glocks.

"I still don't get how we pulled such a B.S security detail job." Clint griped.

Clint leaned towards Bruce.

"No offense."

"None taken."

"Buck up Barton. Besides it could be worse.....we could still be in school." Natasha teased. But before the archer could remark back Bruce's screen flashed to life and a GPS appeared.

"I'd hate to interrupt but there appears to be some cosmic energy just north of us... that is what you're looking for right?" Bruce somewhat sardonically stated.

Hill nodded. "Okay let's move."

Bruce led the way following his gadget with Widow and Hill flanking his right and left side while Hawkeye following closely behind covering the rear. They took many twists and turns covering much of Brooklyn's back alleys not finding much except for a few scurrying rats.

This changed however a few blocks later when the cosmic tracker flared up beeping loudly signaling that it was detecting a spike of cosmic energy.

"Come on! This way!"

Banner ran off quickly in the direction the GPS was directing him with the two Avengers and agent of S.H.I.E.L.D in close pursuit. The four ran a few blocks but stopped suddenly at the sight that awaited them. 

An empty lot with a large gaping crater smack dab in the middle of it.

"This is where the cosmic energy is coming from."

Bruce walked towards the middle of the hole, pressing a couple buttons on the keyboard initiating it to suck up all the cosmic energy in the crater that was unseen by the naked eye.

"Is that all of it Banner?" Hill asked sliding down next to the young genius. Bruce didn't look up as he fiddled with his new tool.

"Well I believe that.... hold on. There is still a large amount of cosmic energy in the area.......and it's moving." 

"Moving?" Widow questioned as she hopped down to join the two.

Bruce opened his mouth to share his hypothesis when Hawkeye noticed a figure lurking out of the corner of his eye.

"Hey you there! Stop!" Barton yelled priming an arrow at the figure. 

The man bolted off into the alley with the archer in close pursuit.

"Widow go cover Barton I'll stay here with Banner!" Hill ordered. Widow nodded running to catch up with Hawkeye and the mystery man.

Meanwhile Hawkeye was running after the man who was knocking over various garbage cans and other debris to try and block his pursuer's progress. Clint however narrowly jumped over and avoided everything his target threw at him, his agility allowed him to keep up with the fleeing figure through all the many turns and obstacles.

Eventually the figure ran out of luck and ran into a dead end. He turned around but in the span of a second became pinned to the brick wall by an arrow.

"Ok, let's see that mug of yours." Hawkeye walked up to the man noting how he was dressed in a black trench coat. Upon closer inspection he also noted that his captive had long brown hair and a straggly beard that in the archer's opinion made him look like a homeless person.

Unknown to the Avenger he actually was.

"Hawkeye! You got him?" 

Clint turned around to see Natasha running towards him with one of her glocks ready at her side.

"Yeah, but he doesn't exactly look like a cosmic demon."

Widow walked up next to her teammate to inspect the man and ultimately reached the same conclusion that he did look a little underwhelming. She nonetheless put her finger to the communicator in her ear. "We got him Hill, I'm sending you our location now."

"Ok we're on our way."

"You humans have no idea who you're dealing with."

Both avengers looked up mildly surprised to hear their prisoner speak.

"What'd you just say?" Hawkeye threatened walking up into their new foe's personal space to look him in the eyes. The man looked back up at the marksman with a surprisingly steely gaze.

"My master is coming. And when he's here he will rule over all of you insects."

"Yeah well he's gonna have to try first and to do that, he'll have to go through us." Black Widow cut in nonchalantly. A few moments later Hill and Banner pulled up in the sedan.

"Come on cupcake you're going for a little ride." Hawkeye quipped as he yanked the prisoner off the wall. He said nothing as the archer led him towards the car and nodded at Bruce when the boy opened the side door. He said nothing as Clint shoved him down into the back seat. Hawkeye placed a pair of cuffs and his wrists as Black Widow jumped into the front seat.

Unknown to the heroes a figure dressed in raggedy clothing and long black hair was watching them from the shadows. He was the actual source of cosmic energy that they were searching for. 

Loki brother of Thor.

"And the pawns fall into place."

............................................................................................................

On the opposite side of town at Lee Whedon high school another Avenger was in a rather perilous situation. 

Tony Stark was stuck in his U.S History class. 

And if there was one class that Tony absolutely dreaded it was history. Sure Tony loved America as much as the next guy but history absolutely bored him to death, so naturally he found history class as a waste of his time and right now his time would be better used for nap time.

So here Tony was, laying with his head on his desk snoozing and drooling next to a one Pepper Potts who didn't even bat an eyelash at Stark's laziness. Although he had never verbally asked her to Pepper always took notes in history class so that Tony would still know what had actually happened in class to make sure he wouldn't fail any test they have to take. 

Unfortunately for Tony he was about to be unceremoniously ripped out of dreamland.

"Will Tony Stark please report to Vice Principal Coulson's office immediately." 

Tony's head jerked up suddenly drool, slightly dripping down the corner of his mouth. His fellow student's laughed at their rich classmate while his friend/companion just rolled her eyes sighing quietly.

"Well you better get going Mr. Stark." Professor Lensher stated rather annoyed that his lecture was interrupted. 

Tony wiped the drool away using the sleeve of his jacket and shook his head to rid himself of the memories of sleep. After another yawn his face fell into a rather unamused look. 

Nonetheless he stood up from his seat, dusting off his clothes, before taking out his red shades the pocket of his jacket.

"Yeah yeah. Don't miss me too much sugarmuffin." Tony remarked motioning towards Lensher as he leisurely exited the class room. 

The history professor only rubbed his forehead silently coming to the revelation that he wasn't paid nearly enough to teach a one Tony Stark.

...............................................................................................................

Tony opened the door to Coulson's office and slowly poked his head into the room his shades now resting on his nose.

"You rang dear."

Coulson looked up from the papers he was reading on his desk and motioned for the young hero to sit down ignoring the latter's snide remark. Tony slowly pulled out the chair trying his hardest to distance himself from the authority figure. 

Finally after about two minutes he sat down in the chair facing the Vice Principal's desk.

"Thank you for joining me Stark, there appears to be a situation here at the school." Coulson said.

"A situation? You mean like my friend in New Jersey," he joked.

"We have reason to believe that there is a super powered creature dwelling in the school's basement," the undercover S.H.I.E.L.D agent stated completely ignoring Tony's barbs and remarks.

"Then why exactly aren't there people running and screaming in fear." Tony questioned sounding rather uninterested.

"The janitor who discovered the fact is a S.H.I.E.L.D agent so were able to inform the teachers and staff that there is a small threat in the area and to not allow any students to leave their classrooms till we give out the all clear."

"So basically you want me to swoop in knock at the bad guy bring him to you and get back to class?" Stark deduced with a raised eyebrow.

"Basically."

Tony stared at Coulson for a few silent seconds before shrugging.

"Works for me."

The young hero lifted himself out of his chair and moved towards the door to make his exit.

"Oh and ..."

The teen looked back with his shades now once covering his eyes.

"Try not to destroy the school."

Tony only smirked as he twisted the door open and walked out of the office.

"Just trust me."

.....................................................................................................

Tony walked down the small stairs leading to the dark and dingy basement of the school that students rarely(more like never) entered. Stark was sure to close the door leading to the basement behind him so that no one would accidentally "stumble" onto anything. 

Once he reached the bottom of the stairs he pressed a button on the red and gold bracelet on his right wrist dispensing his Mark 3 armor around his body.

"Now let's take a closer look shall we."

Now fully equipped with his helmet's advanced detection capabilities he looked around the immediate area in search of anything out of the ordinary. Finding nothing of interest Iron Man walked deeper into the basement, his helmet lights illuminating the ground in front of him. 

The hero flinched when a loud banging noise panged throughout the basement.

He sighed to himself once he came to the realization that it was just the school's heater making noise. Stark shook his head trudging on with one of his repulsors roused as he ventured even further into the grungy lower level.

"How did I pull basement duty, I mean why can't that scary Russian chick do it. I'm sure she loves dark creepy places." Tony thought to himself.

"Sir I am detecting an unidentified personnel near your location."

"Thanks JARVIS."

Iron Man moved forward with both his repulsors raised and scanned around for any vitals. He walked very slowly pointing his repulsors in all directions though he still found nothing. He moved into a dark narrow corridor passing pipes and rats but no super villains.

"JARVIS are you sure there's something down here."

"Positive sir, you should be approaching them now," the AI answered as Tony moved out of the corridor and entered an area that looked similar to the previous.

"Yeah well I'm not..." 

Iron Man was cut off by drops of what appeared to be green slime landed on his helmet. He slowly touched his helmet with his glove and looked up.

"GrrGGaergs!"

"What the..." 

A giant lizard wearing a lab coat lunged at Iron Man knocking him onto his back. It growled loudly in Iron Man's faceplate slightly fogging up his vision.

"H-Hey get off!" He tried to knock The Lizard off him with a flurry of punches but it dodged them all clamping onto his helmet with it's teeth. Tony yelled at the pressure being placed on his helmet but he did manage to land a few punches to the creature's midsection although it did nothing to dislodge it from his armor.

"That's it Dino."

Iron Man charged his energy to his chest repulsor and fired his uni-beam at The Lizard sending him flying into the air landing on it's back with a loud thud. Iron Man slowly stood up wiping off his visor with his glove while The Lizard sprang back up in a primal position.

"Round two Barney." Iron Man raised up both of his repulsors while The Lizard let out an animalistic growl. It charged at Iron Man who fired at it with both repulsors. The Lizard dodged the blasts and jumped right next to the armored hero. He fired at it again but it ducked and swung it's tail knocking him into a wall.

The Lizard charged at him but this time Iron Man was ready as when it got close to him he raised his knee knocking the reptile into the air before it braced itself to the ground with it's claws. The hero and the monster stared at each other both waiting for the other to make the first move.

"This definitely beats history."

The two charged at each other.

........................................................................................................................

Natasha strolled through the halls of Lee Whedon high school, making her way back to her Chemistry class to check on Steve and Thor. She and Barton had been successful in transporting the prisoner into S.H.I.E.L.D custody. Fury however told Coulson to instruct the two Avengers to return to class saying he would have Agent Hill handle the interrogation. 

Natasha wasn't alone however.

She was joined by Bruce who was also returning to the same class and during the course of their walk she found that she rather liked the fifteen year old and ending up feeling legitimate sympathy for him having to bunk with Tony. Something the world's youngest assassin would never do no matter how high the payment. 

So that's how the sixteen year old killer and the fifteen year old genius with astonishing anger issues found themselves shooting the breeze.

"So Bruce what's it like being a fifteen year old junior?" Natasha asked sincerely.

"Well I guess it wouldn't be that bad if it wasn't for the ... other guy." Bruce answered briefly looked down at his shoes as he walked.

"I can imagine how difficult it would be without the Hulk, it must be hell with him," the Russian native bluntly stated.

"Well I'm starting to get the hang of it, I guess."

"If you want you can borrow one of my yoga DVDs."

Bruce looked at Natasha with an incredulous look thinking for sure that she was mocking him. She looked right back down at him, her gaze unchanging.

"What? Yoga is a great stress reliever."

Bruce was going to make a remark when a loud explosion shook the halls and soon smoke began pouring out of a nearby classroom. They ran towards the room covering their mouths and faces so as not to inhale any of the smoke as they ventured closer to the class. The teens were nearly trampled by several students who were fleeing the room. The Avengers journeyed further into the smoke filled room and Natasha silently sighed to herself and let out a breath of relief at the sight before them.

A certain Captain from the forties and a certain god of thunder were both covered from head to toe in dust and smoke while a slightly amused and slightly disturbed Mr. Pym put out the small fire on their lab station with a fire extinguisher.

"What happened?" Natasha asked trying not to let her jaw drop in shock.

"It seems that Mr. Rogers and Mr. Odinson mixed two very reactive substances together and I'm sure you can see the results." Pym sighed waving his hand around the room.

"Which two?" Bruce questioned seeming both frightened and legitimately interested about the events that transpired.

"I can't tell and they're not saying." Pym answered.

"Probably wouldn't be able to pronounce it anyway." Steve sighed while Thor coughed rather violently. 

Natasha walked over to Steve and wiped a little bit of the soot off of Steve's cheeks making the captain suddenly very grateful that she couldn't see the blush on his cheeks. Her hand lingered on his cheek a little bit longer then what could be considered "normal" so she quickly retracted her hand and the two roommates found themselves staring at each other. They were interrupted however as Thor coughed again involuntarily.

"There is a washing station in the back room, you guys can go in there and clean up and I'll write you guys passes for your next classes." Pym lightly smiled as he walked off in search of a broom.

"Come on big guy let's go get you cleaned up." Bruce said as he helped Thor into the back room leaving Steve and Natasha alone.

"So what did Coulson want from you guys?" Steve asked when their teammates left, breaking the silence that befell them.

"There was some strange cosmic energy detected in Brooklyn so he wanted us to investigate it." Natasha answered, the business demeanor of the Black Widow overcoming her features.

"You find anything?"

"We found a mysterious homeless man who was saying some pretty strange things but we apprehended him. I still think I should be the one interrogating him." Natasha said bitterly kicking her feet as she looked away trying not to show how upset she really was.

"Well why aren't you?" a puzzled Steve asked.

"Fury wanted me to get to class." Natasha said rolling her eyes.

"Well I guess heroes need to get an education too." Steve joked with a smile.

"Trust me Steve I'm no hero." she retorted quickly causing Steve to look back up at her confused. Natasha spoke without a hint of sadness or sarcasm which Steve took note of although he decided it would be better not to press the issue at the moment.

"Agree to disagree." Steve smiled again but this time with a sense of finality.

The soldier and spy just stared at each other, neither of them speaking. Natasha was slightly taken aback at the insinuation that he thought of her as a hero, of course she didn't think much of it since he didn't yet know of all the red that is in her ledger.

Steve on the other hand was pondering why his teammate didn't view herself as a hero. She protected the innocent, she's an Avenger, and he was reminded an awful lot once again of somebody that he used to know.

He was also starting to see from the few days that he had known her that deep down she is actually a caring and dare he say nice person. 

Not that he would dare say that to her face, not even Steve was that naive.

"Why don't we go get you cleaned up soldier." Natasha said with a small smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. Steve shifted in seat and gave her an equal sized smile.

"Agreed. I'd really like to be in clean clothes again."

................................................................................................................................................

Meanwhile on the Hellicarrier Agent Maria Hill walked down the halls of one of the carrier's many corridors passing a number of fellow S.H.I.E.L.D agents on the way. She finally stopped at a door with S.H.I.E.L.D's eagle emblem on it, punching a four number code into the keypad next to the door.

Said door slid open and Hill walked into a small dimly lit gray room only containing a large square table and the homeless man from the alley now, dressed in an orange prison suit. 

Hill sat down in the chair across from him intertwining her fingers on the desk while staring at the man, who did not meet her gaze choosing only to stare down at the table.

"We have a few questions for you Mr... Raymond." Hill stated looking down at the files she had brought in with her. She looked back up at him and continued when she didn't get a response.

"Your name is Grover Raymond correct? 39 years old, caucasian male, born to Jim and Suzy Raymond. Attended the University of New York until you lost everything due to an addiction to heroin."

Raymond still didn't look up at the S.H.I.E.L.D agent, he didn't even flinch at her words.

"I'll take that as a yes. Now Mr. Raymond we detected an unusually large amount of cosmic energy emitting from the area we found you at. Would you care to explain to us how that's possible."

No answer.

"Would you also care to explain why you fled when S.H.I.E.L.D agents attempted to question you?"

Raymond still didn't answer.

"Then how about you explain what you meant when you said your master is coming to rule over us insects!" Hill started to raise her voice obviously annoyed at the vagrant's lack of cooperation. He however finally looked up at her his eyes an unsettling dark green.

"My master is more powerful than you can even comprehend...... of course you will soon see that firsthand." Raymond chuckled.

"What the..." Hill was interrupted when a loud alarm rang throughout the Hellicarrier. She quickly rushed out of the room leaving a still laughing Raymond to himself. 

She drew her sidearm and ran up to a group of S.H.I.E.L.D agents who had their weapons raised at a closed door at the end of the hallway.

"What's going on!?" Hill asked the agent in charge.

"The Hellicarrier's been breached. All we know is that it is a highly powered individual."

The door then blew open causing the agents to move to the sides of the hallway to avoid being crushed by the flying object. Once the smoke cleared the agents were able to identify the figure responsible. 

He was dressed in a black trench coat with black boots and a green medieval attire underneath the trench coat. Finally the hostile had long black hair that was slicked back and menacing blue eyes. 

It was the god of mischief Loki.


	14. Compromised

"What's going on?!"

"The Hellicarriers been breached!"

Loki gazed upon the several S.H.I.E.L.d agents that stood in front of him with their weapons raised. They all occupied a long narrow hallway on the Helicarrier that was a pristine silver color. At the end of the hallway stood a sliding door which had the S.H.I.E.L.D eagle emblem on it.

And the only thing that stood in the way of Loki and the door were a handful of mildly equipped agents.

"Well then..... shall we get started?"

The agents didn't waver at the eery calmness of the intruder as they cocked their weapons and crouched into defensive positions, three agents stood only a few feet away from Loki while two more agents crouched in the middle of the hallway. Finally one agent stood in front of the door at the end of the hall.

"We're only gonna tell you this one time. Get down on the ground and put your hands behind your head!" the agent by the door yelled.

Loki's smile quickly changed from one of amusement to that of simple annoyance.

"You humans are so repetitive."

Loki turned his head to stare directly at one of the agents that was closest to him and tilted his head to the side, the agent still wore a face of determination even under the steely gaze of the demigod, however a solitary drop of sweat dropped down the side of his temple, and that was all that Loki needed to see. 

Quicker than lightning Loki was in the agents face wrapping his hand around the agent's neck and raising him off the ground.

"You're all nothing more than insects under my boot."

Two agents ran towards Loki not wanting to fire their weapons in fear of hitting their comrade, yelling for Loki to let him down. The Asgardian threw the agent he was choking into one of the agents that was running towards him knocking them both into the wall. 

The other agent swung his rifle at Loki who caught it with his hand, without batting an eye he used the agent's own momentum to fling him at the wall next to the other fallen agents.

The two agents from the middle of the hallway opened fired at Loki but the demigod dodged the projectiles quickly appearing behind the agents, kicking one of them sharply in the ankle causing him to crouch down and groan in pain. The other agent tried to bring his gun around to fire but Loki kicked him in the chest sending him flying into the wall knocking him out cold. 

He then spun around kicking the injured agent in the face knocking him out as well. The final agent charged at Loki swinging his fist which Loki ducked away from and punched then punched the agent in the gut hunching him over his fist.

"I grow bored." Loki whispered to him, Loki then retracted his fist and then quickly elbowed him in the back causing him to collapse to the ground.

Loki dusted off his shoulder, sighing quietly to himself before he began to walk towards the door at the end of the hallway.

"Now back to business."

Maria Hill and about ten other S.H.I.E.L.D agents stood in the small rectangular room, behind the door the other agents were protecting, these agents were blocking the way to another door with the S.H.I.E.L.D emblem on it that led to the interrogation room that contained Grover Raymond inside. 

Maria's ears suddenly perked up when she heard a low humming noise, the other agents soon noticed it as well.

"What the hell is that?" one of the agents asked.

BOOM!

The door exploded open with a shockwave that knocked the S.H.I.E.L.D agents back ultimately knocking them unconscious.  
Loki walked through now wielding a magical staff/spear. He walked past the various unmoving forms before charging his staff again destroying the door that led to the interrogation room, inside Grover Raymond looked up at Loki in awe but soon quickly got up from his seat to kneel before his master.

"Master! I knew you would come to get me."

Loki gave him a small, wicked smile.

"A pleasure to see you again Mr. Raymond. Now come, we have business to attend to."

Hill struggled to move, using up the last of her strength to crawl over through the rubble trying to reach her firearm. She started to cough violently when she got within a finger's length away from the weapon. She tried to grasp the gun and was finally able to lift and aim it towards Loki.

She tried her best to ignore the burning pain in her shoulder and keep her aim steady but she wasn't able to stop her hand from shaking. Maria clenched her teeth as used every ounce of strength left in her to pull the trigger but she still couldn't keep her aim straight. 

Loki's head turned towards her slowly, an ominous smirk adorning his face as he winked at her. She glared at him as she tried one last time to try to shoot the intruder but her vision slowly became increasingly blurry until she suddenly dropped her weapon. Soon enough her eyelids began to slowly droop and the last thing she saw was Loki and Raymond disappear in a flash of blue light before she blacked out.

.......................................................................................................................................................................................................

After Natasha and Bruce finally got Steve and Thor cleaned up Pym wrote them all passes for their next classes. Since both Steve and Thor had the same class they took a shortcut while Natasha and Bruce went off in the direction of their own respective classes. This particular shortcut that they were taking was in one of the cuts in the hallway which passed through several doors labeled as restricted to students.

Even though their skin and clothes were no longer covered in dust Steve's hair still itched and Thor still coughed every now and then.

"Well now we know never to do that again." Steve stated scratching the back of his head.

"Indeed, it seems we should leave science to the professionals." Thor agreed nodding his head.

The two walked in a relative(but comfortable) silence as they continued their trek through the narrow hallway. That was until a sudden thought dawned on Thor as an uncharacteristically sly grin grew on his face.

"Well on the bright side my friend at least you got to feel Lady Natasha's touch."

Steve stopped in his tracks at his teammate's insinuation and turned a deep red.

"Wh-wha... I-I have no idea what you're talking about."

Thor grinned toothily at Steve's flustered appearance and clasped his shoulder in a brotherly manner.

"Relax friend, I only kid you."

Steve sighed and wiped his now slightly sweaty forehead. 

Well at least his hair didn't itch anymore.

"But I must admit, even though we've only known each other for less than a week there does seem to be some sort of spark between you and our female companion." Thor mused as he began to continue walking down the hall, Steve raised his eyebrow at the asgardian before running after him.

"What's that supposed to..."

CLANG!

The two stopped, jumping back into defensive positions when a green blur crashed through one of the doors to the left ahead of them that-according to the sign on it- led into the school's basement. 

The figure turned out to be a giant man/lizard dressed in a tattered lab uniform and purple pants, The Lizard lunged at the heroes jumping into the air.

A loud pang was heard as The Lizard was hit mid-air by a repulsor blast that incapacitated him once he hit the ground.

The Lizard then returned to to his human form which was a middle aged man with brown hair dressed in a tattered lab uniform. The owner of the blast walked out of the basement revealing himself to be none other than Iron Man.

"Well it's a small world isn't it." Iron Man quipped as his armor compacted itself back into the bracelet Tony wore around his wrist, his fellow Avengers walked up next to him to get a closer look at the man that was just a giant reptile.

"What's up with him?" Steve asked to which Tony shrugged.

"Don't know, don't care. All I know is Coulsson wanted me to subdue scaly over here so I did."

"I see... so now what?" Steve further questioned as Thor crossed his arms over his chest, Tony simply shrugged again.

No sooner than a few seconds later two S.H.I.E.L.D agents dressed as janitors showed up and cuffed the unconscious man dragging him away with barely a greeting or goodbye. The heroes could tell they were S.H.I.E.L.D by the small eagle emblem on their front shirt pockets. The three teens watched them walk away in a collective and surprised silence.

"Things like that make you wonder..." Tony started as he turned towards his two fellow crime fighters.

"... how many agents does S.H.I.E.L.D really have in this school."

......................................................................................................................................................................................................

Coulson sat in his office with his feet on his desk leaning back in his chair, for once the source of the undercover agent's stress wasn't one of his "students" but rather the phone conversation he was currently having with head of S.H.I.E.L.D Nick Fury.

"You sure sir... how is that possible... any casualties... good... should I inform the Avengers... you sure... affirmative sir Coulsson out."

Coulson closed his phone and placed it on the desk, rubbing his temple he sighed as he leaned back further in his chair.

"I got a bad feeling about this."

.....................................................................................................................................................................................................

Later after school ended the Avengers and their friends Rhodey, Pepper, Betty, Jane, and Erik stood outside of the team's "dilapidated" looking headquarters, which the non-superheroes noticed looked an awful lot like an abandoned warehouse, of course they had yet to see how it actually looks inside.

"This is it?" Rhodey asked lightly kicking the wall in front of him noting how the bricks it was made out of were an unflattering dirt color.

"You, Tony Stark, multimillionaire teenager who has 5 different bedrooms for each day of the school week stayed in THIS for two whole days!........ I'll believe it when I see it."

Tony smirked as he walked up next to his best friend and patted his shoulder.

"Ahh so young and ignorant."

"Shut up Tony."

Natasha rolled her eyes walking to the wall Rhodey and Tony were in front of and removed a loose brick that revealed a touchpad keyboard. The newcomers to the building watched in awe as the teenage assassin typed in a four digit number, a group of bricks about the size and height of a door collectively separated from each other revealing the inside of a high tech elevator. The heroes casually walked into the elevator leaving their guests with their jaws on the ground.

"You coming?" Tony asked with a smirk.

The other teens quickly piled into the elevator watching as the elevator's door closed behind them once they were inside, Natasha pressed the button marked "3" and the elevator began to ascend up the building. Rhodey looked over at Tony who only looked back with a look that practically screamed "I told you so".

"Ok so I admit this is rather impressive, but just do me a favor and wipe that look off your face will ya?" Rhodey begged.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Tony stated innocently although his ever present smirk sold him out causing Pepper took the opportunity to both sigh and roll her eyes right on cue.

"Fine Tony we apologize for giving you such a hard time. But would it have killed you to I don't know call or text?" Pepper interrogated causing Tony to fidget with his shirt collar, laughing nervously.

"You see what had happened was..."

Ding

Tony let out a breath of relief at the noise that alerted the elevator goers that they had reached their floor, a few seconds later the door slid open and it's patrons began to pile out.

"Phew... saved by the bell." Tony remarked causing Pepper to glare as she walked by him and punched him hard in the arm.

"Oww! That was SO uncalled for!" Tony whined when Pepper walked away joining the rest of the group, he rubbed his arm with a pout before he finally trudged off to join his friends.

"She hits hard for a girl."

The coalition of friends convened in the middle of the team's war-room all sitting at the room's large round table. Steve, Thor, Jane, Erik, Clint, Bruce, Betty, Rhodey, and now Pepper were all sitting down while Natasha stood in front of them. Tony walked over to them still rubbing his arm sitting in between Pepper and Rhodey sticking his tongue out at his longtime female friend.

Natasha cleared her throat signaling she wanted to begin raising her eyebrow specifically at Tony.

"Are we ready?"

Tony shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.

"Start whenever you want lady tarantula."

Natasha chose to ignore the adolescent from the one percent(just this one time) remembering that they had guests in their humble abode. She surveyed the faces around the table stopping at Steve who gave her a small but reassuring smile, returning the gesture to her roommate before turning her attention back to the entire group.

"Now as you all know we..." motioning towards both her Avenger teammates and herself.

"... are either highly powered or extraordinarily gifted teenagers."

"In English?" an obviously bored Tony requested making Natasha shake her head lightly.

"We're super powered crime fighters, and as crime fighters we have an obligation to protect the innocent. Now we can't tell you too much but, what we can tell you is that an organization sanctioned by the government assembled us as a team with this building serving as our headquarters." Natasha used her hand to motion around the room.

"The upper levels serve as our living quarters and you all are free to visit whenever you want as long as you tell no one else of this place. Understand?"

Pepper, Jane, Rhodey, Erik, and Betty all nodded. 

Tony cleared his throat as he stood up and smoothed out his clothes. "We done here?" 

Steve stood up from his chair facing Tony while crossing his arms.

"You don't ever stop do you?" 

Tony glared at the Avengers team leader, scrunching his forehead at Steve. "Uh... no I don't. That's the point."

"Great we get dinner and fight, speaking of that who wants Chinese?" Clint joked putting both his feet up on the table.

"This happen alot?" Jane asked nervously as they all watched Steve and Tony shoot daggers at each other.

"So far." Bruce sighed. Steve and Tony continued to eye one another with neither showing any signs of stopping.

"Okay bored now." Tony mused with a completely straight face as he turned around walking towards the elevator, Steve watched him walk away clearly irritated.

"Tony! Remember!..." Natasha started.

"Be back before bedtime I know." Tony dismissed her with a light wave of his hand as he stepped into the elevator. Everyone watched the elevator's door close, everyone except Pepper who put her forehead in her hand in embarrassment.

"He can be so frustrating sometimes."

The group sat in a collective silence and it was almost as if they were unsure of what to do next....... well that was until Clint's stomach resurfaced.

"So... Chinese anyone?"


	15. Breakfast Bonding

All Natasha wanted was to have a nice peaceful Saturday morning. But apparently that just wasn't in the god's plans. 

It had already been a few days since Tony's little outburst and the Avengers were actually able to finish the school week without a major super-villain attack. This recent string of good fortune made Natasha secretly hope that the serenity would carry over into the weekend.

The early indications however pointed to the fact that this sadly simply wasn't the case. Steve's godforsaken alarm clock woke her up at the unholy hour of 5 am, she swore she would have stabbed him if she didn't think he was cute, not that she would ever say that aloud or admit it to his or Tony's face.

Then after that it seemed like there were a million little irritants meant to ruin her morning.

She was out of tooth paste, Steve left the seat up, and worst of all their milk was expired. 

Now normally this wouldn't be the end of the world but they also happened to be out of coffee mate. So that meant no coffee for Natasha, and you didn't want to see the type of mood the Black Widow would be in without her morning cup of coffee. The very thought alone had 'the Great American' hope Steve Rogers shaking in his shoes.

"Steve!"

Natasha's roommate cautiously peered into the kitchen without actually stepping into the room, his eyes widened slightly when he was met with the sight of a teenage assassin with her hands on her hips and a scowl on her face. Said assassin wiggled her finger at Steve motioning him to enter.

"Yes Natasha?" the frightened super soldier sheepishly asked. His companion only crossed her arms and started to tap her left foot impatiently.

"We have no milk," Natasha answered in a deadpan tone. 

Steve raised his right eye brow confusion evident in his facial features.

"Yeah... is that it?" Steve could see right away he made a grave mistake when Natasha raised her own eyebrow and glared at him.

"Is that it? Isn't that enough?"

Steve's head coiled back as he took a slight step back in fear, sweat dripping down the side of his face.

As if being a super hero in high school wasn't hard enough.

"Um... Yes.. I MEAN no!... uh sorry?"

Natasha unfolded her arms and walked past Steve without looking at him.

"Gather the Avengers... now".

"Uh...ok" he stuttered out.

Captain America wasn't sure why Natasha wanted to call an emergency Avenger's meeting but he did know one thing for sure, an angry Black Widow made World War II look like a picnic.

.............................................................................

Bruce Banner was not a happy camper, for two reasons mainly. First was because for some inexplicable reason Natasha called an 'emergency meeting' at damn near six in the morning on a Saturday. And the second was because he had to deal with a Tony Stark without his beauty sleep. That alone had Bruce near the brink of a green colored blind fury. Though the fact that the genius was surrounded by a group of individuals who were capable of containing the Hulk somewhat comforted him.

Well somewhat.

"Can someone please explain to me why we are all up this early on our day off?" Tony whined causing the vein on Bruce's forehead to pulse slightly, which was something it seemed to be doing more and more often lately. Tony was wearing the same clothes he was sleeping in, a KISS t-shirt with sweatpants the only difference was that he now had shades on. He was sitting at their conference table next to Bruce who had his head in his hands, to the right of Stark sat Clint who was wearing a muscle shirt with sweatpants and had his feet set on the table. On the other side of Bruce sat Thor who had his arms crossed and wore a wife beater and sweats. Finally to the left of him sat Steve who looked completely awake and was fully dressed in jeans and a track jacket.

He glared at the billionaire playboy as he tapped his fingers on the table.

"I told you already Stark, Natasha called a meeting,"

Tony rolled his eyes as he leaned back in his chair.

"Who put her in charge anyway?"

"S.H.I.E.L.D did Tony."

The young Iron Man nearly fell out of his chair when Natasha walked behind him causing Clint and Thor to snicker while Steve wore a small smile of his own. S.H.I.E.L.D's youngest field agent shook her head as she sat down in the last seat of the round table in between Steve and Clint.

"Sorry for calling this on such short notice everyone, but trust me this is important," Natasha stated dressed in a black sweater and black tights.

"What is the matter Lady Natasha?" Thor asked clearly concerned. Tony took off his shades and glared at the teenage god with bags under his eyes.

"Lady Tarantula's off her rocker that's what's wrong."

Steve shook his head as he glanced over at Natasha who seemed unfazed.

"The problem Thor, is that we are running low on supplies."

"Supplies? What you mean like weapons? Medical supplies?" Clint questioned as he took his feet off the table. The rest of the team looked at Natasha waiting for an answer.

"No... we're out of milk. And I thought I'd take this opportunity and ask if you guys need anything," she said non-chalantly without batting an eyelash, Tony however batted more then a few eyelashes. And nearly jumped out of his chair.

"What?! You woke me up at this ungodly time to make a grocery list."

"Shut up Stark some of us actually need stuff," Clint retorted.

"Indeed, I am out of the magic stick that prevents my perspiration," Thor decreed.

"You mean deodorant?" Bruce corrected.

"Yes, deodorant."

"Trust me I bunk with him he's not lying. We're also out of cereal and eggs," Clint answered, Natasha nodded before turning towards her roommate.

"Can you write this down Steve?" He nodded as he grabbed a pen from the middle of the table.

"Thanks."

"Yeah thanks Captain Pushover," Tony mocked as he put his shades back on, Steve clenched the pen almost breaking it but he contained himself.

"Come on Tony there's gotta be something you need," Clint teased.

"Yeah like a straightjacket," Steve muttered, Natasha gave him the smallest of smiles but kept an overall neutral look. Tony ignored Steve and looked as if he was deep in thought, after a minute or so he turned towards Bruce.

"Hey Brain do we need anything?" the young genius stopped rubbing his head and stared at the billionaire confused that he was actually asking him his opinion.

"Uh, yeah we're out of butter and orange juice," Tony turned from the 15 year old and back towards Natasha.

"Fine, butter and orange juice," she nodded and looked at Steve who wrote it down.

"Ok good we'll all head to Jewel in 15," the Black Widow ordered as she got out of her chair, her male companions all looked at each other before looking back at her.

"Hold up what do you mean we?" Tony asked putting his hand up like he was in school.

"Yeah what he said," Clint added. She stopped in her tracks and looked over her shoulder at them.

"Well someone has to get the groceries," she said matter of factly.

"Why can't you and the boyscout get it?" questioned Tony as he crossed his arms, in return Natasha did the same.

"Look Tony you don't like me and I don't like you, but whether or not we like it we have to work as a team and this team won't survive if we all can't coexist."

"So basically you're using the groceries as an excuse to do some team bonding."

"Basically."

Tony stared at her for a moment with his shades on his nose.

"Pass," He got up out his chair and started to walk towards the door.

"Tony you have to come," he stopped in front of the door and turned to look back at her.

"Oh yeah? Why?" She gave him a somewhat wicked smile.

"Because if you don't I'll tell Pepper you're acting up again."

The room was quiet as the two stared at each other neither moving.

"...Fine... And for future reference that's cheating," Tony pointed an accusatory finger at her as he walked out, the room got silent again as the remaining male Avengers all wore amused smiles. That was until the Natasha turned towards them.

"What are you all waiting for, you've got ten minutes."

And with that Natasha walked out with her teammates following quickly, it seemed that no one was stupid enough to try to face the Widow's rage.

............................................................................................................................................................................................

The more time Thor spent on Earth the more and more he liked it. First Lady Natasha took him and his new brothers in arms to the place the called Jewel which Thor thought was the closest thing to Valhalla he had ever seen. It was a glorious day as he was able to recover more of the magic stick they call deodorant and the substance Hawkeye said was "Honey Nut Cheerios". And to make things even better afterwards they all went to "IHOP"; the house of hot golden cakes covered in warm liquid called syrup.

He only wished that Tony was enjoying himself as much as he was.

"Friend Stark! Why are you so depressed, are you ill?" Thor bellowed as he cut a huge piece out of his pancakes and stuffed it into his mouth. Tony glared at the demigod through his red shades as he poked his french toast with his fork.

"I'm just peachy blondie," he sat in between Clint and Bruce while across from them on the other side of the table sat Natasha, Steve, and Thor.

"You're a joy to be a round before you put your make-up in the morning you know that right," Clint smiled as he patted Tony's shoulder.

"Thanks pumpkin I appreciate it," Tony shot back. Natasha shook her head as she smiled and took a bite out of her crepe, though it may not seem like it on the surface she could tell that the team was slowly starting to become more closely knit and that was a recipe for success.

Slowly but surely at the very least.

"Hey Bruce did you do the science homework yet?" Steve asked as he took a bite out of his eggs.

"Yeah I did Steve why?" Bruce asked back as he cut up his waffles.

"I was just wondering if you could help me with it cause I'm really having a problem with this chapter."

"Sure we can get started on it when we get back."

Natasha put her utensils down and leaned back as she relaxed and crossed her arms, this team was far from perfect but she could see the potential in it. It was going to be a long school year and this was just the beginning so they would have to get through it together. It was only a matter of time before a super villain caused some sort of trouble and Coulson and Fury had been acting strange lately she noticed. There was definitely something going on that they weren't sharing with her, but she would worry about that later.

Now she decided to just enjoy the weekend.

"Hey red what's with the look on your face you look you just got a lifetime supply of bon bons or something," quipped Tony brining Natasha out of her revere, he was looking at her with his eyebrow raised and a smirk.

"Oh just looking at your handsome face Stark," she sarcastically remarked.

"Glad to see you're coming to your senses finally."

"Oh of course."

Clint shook his head as he grinned and went back to his omelet, Natasha laughed and turned to her right and saw Steve who winked at her before eating the rest of his breakfast. She did the same and went back to her crepe and the group fell into a food induced silence.

Well that was until Thor banged his fist on the table grinning madly like a maniac.

"More Pancakes!"


	16. The Bet

"Stark wake up."

"Come on man seriously this is embarrassing."

Tony's eyes blinked open ever so slowly, his dreams of fast cars and super models rudely put to rest by an unknown party.

Once the haze settled and his vision was clear Tony realized that he was looking at the ceiling, his whole upper body leaning back against the chair of his desk. Blinking his eyes quickly Tony brought his hand to the corner of his mouth feeling a warm liquid substance.

"About time Tony."Tony wiped the drool off his mouth and groggily looked to his side. Sitting to the right of him was a very annoyed Rhodey.

"I miss anything?"Tony yawned as he leaned back against his chair stretching his back.

"You know most people wouldn't be so nonchalant about sleeping in class." Bruce who was sitting to the left of Tony quipped.

"Especially an A.P class." Rhodey said scolding his best friend who only rolled his eyes.

"A.P environmental." Tony reminded him. "It's not like it's Calculus or Psychology."

"Do not discount the environment Stark." Thor chimed in from his seat behind the three. "It has just as much importance if not more than your mathematics and sciences."

"You know the big guy has a point." Bruce stated causing Tony to incredulously stare at the science prodigy.

"Really? The 15 year old gamma expert in high school is defending nature."

Bruce only shrugged.

"Nature's calming. Keeps the other guy quiet."

"Fair enough." Tony acquiesced rather carelessly.

Rhodey shook his head at the billionaire teen.

"Would it kill you to worry just a little bit about your education Tony?

"I'm rich remember. I have enough money to say education smeducation." Tony boasted causing Bruce to sigh and Thor to shake his head, Rhodey was in no better condition as a vein was popping out on his forehead.

"Plus I am Ir..."

"Is there something you'd like to share with the class mister Stark?"

Tony gulped.

The fiery red-headed Environmental teacher Ms.O'Hara glared at Tony her arms crossed over her chest. The teen otherwise known as Iron Man looked as if he was visibly shrinking under her gaze.

"Well?"

"N-No ma'am. Sorry ma'am." Tony squeaked out as he sank further into his chair.

"Good." Ms.O'Hara said as she eyed Stark. "Now as I was saying..."

"You deserved that." Rhodey whispered to Tony.

"Shhh." Tony shushed Rhodey choosing not to look at his friend. "No talking in class."

"Dic..."

"Mister Rhodes!" Ms.O'Hara exclaimed whipping her head to look at the young man sitting next to Tony.

"...tator! I said dictator!"Rhodey clamored as Tony snickered quietly to himself. Bruce and Thor on the other hand were trying not to look like they were associated with the two best friends.

"Oh really?" questioned Ms.O'Hara.

"Yes!" Rhodey lied.

"Tony was asking me about a question on our history homework and the answer was dictator."

Tony and Bruce were trying their best not to break into hysterics while Thor looked thoroughly confused about all the fuss being made. Ms.O'Hara was none to amused.

"Is this true Mister Stark?"

All eyes in the class were on Tony. He shifted his eyes to the right where Rhodey was sending him a silent message through his eyes, pleading Tony to be reasonable. Tony's eyes darted back and forth from Rhodey to Ms.O'Hara seemingly taking a little (sadistic) joy in seeing Rhodey sweat in the hot seat.

Finally after what to Rhodey felt like an eternity Tony coughed into his hand and cleared his throat seemingly ready to speak.

"Yes... it's true. Mr. Rhodes here was kind enough to grace me with his knowledge and give me the answer to my question."

The room stayed silent as Ms.O'Hara and Tony stared at each other. She had her eyebrows raised while he maintained a cool,almost uninterested demeanor on his face.

"Fine." Ms.O'Hara said finally turning her back on the disruptors of the class.

"Oh that was rich." Bruce said quietly.

Tony sighed at Rhodey making his companion sigh and rub his temples.

"You're welcome."

"I hate you."

"Remember class tomorrow is our field trip to the New York state forest preserve." Ms.O'Hara started.

"We'll camp out there tomorrow into Friday and return Saturday. Be sure to pack plenty of food and other essential supplies listed on the field trip slip."

The bell rang signaling the end of the period. The students began to all pile out into the hallway; Tony, Rhodey, Bruce,and Thor being the last ones to leave the classroom.

Tony yawned as he stretched his arms out and up above his head.

"You just never quit do you?" Rhodey asked as he shook his head.

"Yeah I don't, that's why I'm the superhero and you're the neurotic side kick." Tony retorted.

"I'll show you sidekick."

"Calm down guys." Bruce intervened. "I'm starting to wonder if I'm the only one with anger issues."

Thor grinned as he wrapped his arms around Tony and Rhodey's shoulders pulling them close.

"Banner is right. This shouldn't be a time of should be a time of celebration!After all by this time tomorrow we will be undertaking out glorious adventure through the wilderness of the New York preserve."

Rhodey cautiously eyed Tony from his place under Thor's armpit.

"I'm still not used to this."

Tony sighed just as Thor squeezed his biceps causing Tony and Rhodey's eyes to bulge out.

"Trust me buddy none of us are."  
......................................................................................................................................................................................

After School

"So where's this field trip to anyway?"

Natasha questioned as she used chopsticks to eat her Mu Shu pork out of the Chinese container in her hand. The whole team was hanging out in Tony and Bruce's apartment eating take out Clint and Steve got from Joe's Shanghai in Chinatown.

Bruce, Steve, and Tony were sitting on the couch while Natasha was on the love seat to the right of Tony and Clint was in the recliner to the left of Bruce.

"Our Environmental teacher is taking us to the New York State forest preserve." Bruce answered as he chewed on his Pad Thai.

"I've been there before ," Clint chimed in. "Nice place, pretty peaceful and quiet by New York standards."

"Yeah, yeah, trees grass more trees great." Tony grumbled causing Natasha to raise her eyebrow.

"What's the matter Stark? Not a nature fan?"

Tony balefully mouthed her sentence in a mimic like fashion, Natasha playfully creased her forehead and stuck her tongue out at the rich kid.

"Come on Tasha you can't expect his royal highness to be interested in things like flowers and dirt." Steve teased getting a good laugh out of everyone in the room minus the none too pleased Iron Man.

"Ha ha good one Captain Corny. You've become quite the comedian in the month or so since you've been thawed out."

Natasha shook her head as she reached over Tony and picked a dumpling out of Steve's container with her chopsticks.

"Don't be so sensitive Tony. I mean admit it you couldn't last a day in the wilderness."

"He'd go nuts in a hour." Clint teased.

"I'd give him thirty minutes." Bruce chuckled.

"I think we've had enough from the peanut gallery thank you very much. And I'll have you all know that there is no situation where Tony Stark can't adapt and survive." Tony boasted.

"Prove it then tin man." Steve challenged. The entire apartment turned silent and all of it's occupants stopped eating their food at almost the exact same time. Tony turned to the ancient teen sitting next to him, their teammates observing intensely.

"Is that a challenge?"

"It is."

"Ok what are the terms?" Tony asked grabbing an egg roll out of his container, Steve uncharacteristically smirked at the billionaire.

"If you can last the entire trip without all your armor and your gadgets then I will do your algebra homework for a week."

Natasha stopped chewing her pork to look at her roommate with both eyebrows raised, Tony on the other hand chuckled smiling for the first time that night.

"And if I lose?"

"Then you do the same for me."

The two heroes stared at each other almost mirroring the other completely, both wore devious smirks and an arched eyebrow.

"Deal."

Clint laughed heartily clapping his hands together in amusement. "Gentlemen it's official we have a good old fashioned bet." He smiled as he took a bite of his egg foo young.

"We should have someone officiate though, you know someone unbiased who can sure make Tony doesn't cheat."

"How about Doogie Houser over there." Stark suggested motioning towards Bruce, the 15 year old sighed and put his chopsticks and container down onto the coffee table.

"Fine, I'll referee your bet."

"Do I even need to say how bad of an idea this is?" Natasha asked eyeing the two competitors. Steve shifted his eyes from Stark over to Natasha but still kept the smirk on his face.

"What's the worse that could happen?"

Her entire face dropped in what a brave soul may consider comical (not that anyone has been stupid enough so far to laugh at The Black Widow's face).

"Famous last words Rogers."

She shook her head as Tony turned towards her and tried to pick some pork out of her container, she quickly whacked his hand causing it to recoil back to it's master.

"Don't be so dull Romanoff, like the good Captain said what's the worse that could happen?" Tony said as he nursed his hand.

Natasha rolled her eyes as she took a bite of another piece of was trying his best not to laugh at the scene in front of him, Clint on the other hand had no such reservations as he almost choked on his food from his chuckling. Bruce smiled as he shook his head but sobered when he noticed the three untouched containers of food sitting on the table.

"Hey where's Thor? His foods getting cold." Bruce asked. Clint quickly stopped laughing and cleared his throat.

"The big guy's on the roof. He said he needed to call someone."

Natasha curiously looked over at Clint as she finished chewing her food.

"All the apartments have landline phones why is he on the roof?" she asked. Clint shrugged his shoulders

"Maybe he wanted privacy." Bruce suggested. Steve shook his head.

"From what? We're all in here."

"Maybe he's just a nature freak, you know flowers and dirt and all that stuff." Tony said as he tried to steal Natasha's food only to get whacked again.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Natasha questioned.

"Maybe ole Ironsides just wants to get back in touch with nature so he went up to the roof to call his Shakespeare troupe or whoever the hell he talks to." Tony explains as he rubs his hand.

"Let's shelve that theory for now." Steve says making Natasha and Clint laugh, Tony pouted but cheered himself up by snatching Bruce's food off the table and then proceeding to stuff his face. Bruce sighed as he leaned back into his couch cushion shaking his head.

"Regardless, I hope Thor's alright."

.............................................................................................................................................

Thor felt an innate sense of comfort and relief as he breathed in the night air of the warehouse's rooftop. Clint and himself were really the only two avengers who frequented this spot of their headquarters but it was their teammates loss really, in many ways this was the best spot of the base. But nevertheless the demigod wasn't sitting cross legged on the rooftop just to enjoy the scenery, at least not tonight he wasn't.

Tonight, he had a different goal.

In front of him were six small stone tablets arranged in a circle. Taking a deep breath he dug around in the pocket of his coat and pulled out a small dagger that had gold plating and was encrusted with Norse writing and symbols on it. The Son of Odin twirled the dagger around in his hand gazing at it like it was an antique in a museum.

He may not feel anything but he still hates this part.

Thor pricked his thumb with the dagger producing a small cut, a drop of blood spilling out onto one of the stones. Thor shook the appendage and watched the stones begin to glow an ethereal blue color as he sucked on his wound. Beams of light shot out from the stones into the air coalescing to create a portal in front of Thor's face. At first the portal served only as a mirror showing Thor his own reflection but soon the portal began to ripple like a pond until finally the portal showed Thor a girl his age with long flowing black hair dressed in a formal green evening gown, she was sitting in a bedroom that any mortal would describe as having a medieval feeling. 

But Thor knew better, he also knew better than to view the girl as a normal teenager. Of course the dagger she was polishing was a dead giveaway as well.

"Sif."

Sif's eyes shot up from her weapon and her entire face lit up when she saw her old friend through the portal. She hopped off her bed and smoothed out her dress as she dragged a nearby chair in front of the portal.

"Thor! It's good to hear from you." Sif smiled as she sat down in the chair.

"And it is good to hear from you Sif," Thor said as he returned her smile. Sif placed the dagger on the night stand next to her bed and turned her attention back to Thor crossing her left leg over her right before tucking a stray strand of her raven hair behind her ear.

"How is Midgard Thor?"

"It is safe, for now at least." Thor noticed a shift in her eyes, it was sudden and she was quick to veil it by blinking. A normal person would have dismissed the change as a trick of the eye or just their imagination.

He didn't though, after all he has been friends with the girl his whole life.

"Is something the matter Sif?"

"It's nothing."

"Sif..."

She looked away from the son of Odin with an almost annoyed look adorning her face.

"Don't try to make connections where there are none Thor it's not your style." Sif huffed as she crossed her arms across her chest.

Thor shook his head at his best friend's antics. He could easily tell from the look in her eyes that there was something Sif wanted to tell him but she wasn't going to say it.

"And keeping secrets aren't your style Sif."

Sif's eyes darkened slightly causing Thor to lean forward in concern. Upon closer inspection he saw that her eyes looked empty, almost dead even.

"Things have changed since you left Thor." She finally said steeling her gaze, he said nothing. All he could do was look at her, his eyes somber and his jaw clenched.

"Sif..."

"Oh don't be so dramatic, like I said it's ill befitting of you." Sif said blinking away the sadness in her eyes before flashing a playful smile. Thor could see as plain as day that she wasn't fine but he knew that he wasn't going to get any information out of her so he returned her smile.

"How are Volstagg and the others?"

"They are well." She said further relaxing. " Baldur is doing a good job as Captain of the guard and Volstagg is still as boisterous as ever."

Thor chuckled joyfully even further relaxing Sif.

"And how are Mother and brother Loki?"

She stiffened sitting up straighter in her chair and uncrossing her legs.

"Sif?" Thor started once again confused.

Sif recovered quickly coughing to clear her throat.

"Your mother misses you greatly as I'm sure you know."

"And Loki?"

She said nothing as she lowered her gaze to the ground.

So whatever this is about must have something to do with Loki.

"Sif don't make me ask again."

"Loki is fine Thor, you know your father asked me about you the other day."

She was changing the subject and he knew it. He didn't know why she kept going in circles but he wasn't in the mood for the conflict. Not then.

"How is Father?"

"You know he forgives you for leaving."

"He said it?"

"No but he's your father Thor, he'll always love you."

He almost felt like laughing but he was surprised to find that he was suddenly to sad to do so.

"You can come back Thor."

"You know I have...commitments."

"Yes but at the end of the year you will be, oh what is the word... graduating. You could return to Asgard after that."

"Earth still needs protection."

"You said yourself that there are now other warriors just as capable of doing just that." She argued.

"Yes but..." He stammered. Sif cocked her eyebrow at him giving him a knowing look that started to make him feel like a child. He mentally decided that she had spent too much time with his mother.

"It's that Earth girl isn't it?"

"It's more than that." Thor said though it didn't sound as strong as he would have liked.

"You're still a terrible liar Thor." Sif remarked though the small smile she wore let Thor know that she meant it good naturedly.

"But do your self a favor and tell her already."

Thor shook his head grinning to himself.

"What would I do without you Sif?"

She gave him a knowing smile. "You'd smash everything and never ask questions."

Thor flashed his best friend a warm smile making her beam back at her laughing.

"I'll let you rest Sif. I'll talk to you soon."

"Be safe Thor." She said sincerely.

"Always." He replied.

Sif watched as the portal rippled away leaving her staring at the barren wall of her quarters.

"Please forgive me for lying to you Thor."

............................................................................................................................................................................

Location: Helicarrier

"Knock, knock."

Maria Hill looked up from her magazine to see Coulson leaning against the door frame of the Helicarrier's infirmary.

"Took you long enough to visit."

Phil smirked as he stepped into the medical facility. Maria shook her head before placing her magazine on the table next to her hospital bed.

"Yeah sorry about that. Turns out it's being busy work being the vice principal of a high school." Coulson joked as he pulled up a chair to Maria's bed.

"You don't say?" Maria said sarcastically rolling her eyes at Coulson.

He shrugged as he settled into his chair and crossed his right leg over his lap.

"Who knew right?"

Maria groaned as she tried to sit up straight from her encounter with Loki. Coulson noticed the grimace in her face so he got up and grabbed a pillow from a nearby empty hospital bed.

"How're your injuries?" He asked once she was settled against her pillow.

"Better. Doc says I should be back in the field soon."

Coulson just looked at her, his expression wooden and somber. She stared back at him her eyebrows arched in confusion.

"What's up?"

"Fury told me not to tell the kids about the attack."

"Well that's shocking." She joked though he didn't laugh.

"You know keeping things from people is kinda in the job description Phil." Maria said turning serious.

"This is different."

'"How so?"

"They're teenagers Hill." Coulson argued.

"They're superheroes."

"They're just kids."

"Were we so different when we started out?"

"Maybe that's the point."

The two agents of S.H.I.E.L.D sat in silence, neither one knowing whether they should be the next one to speak or not.

"They deserve to know that there might be a bigger threat out there." Coulson said finally.

"That's Fury's decision to make not ours." Maria reasoned.

"Why keep secrets though?"

"Why does anyone keep secrets?"

Coulson stayed silent.

"Look Coulson, I'll make a deal with you." Maria continued. "Once I get out of here we'll both go talk to Fury and get some answers. If you do something for me."

Coulson smirked at his associate's mischievous tone.

"What will I owe ya?"

"Rocky road ice cream."

"Deal." Coulson chuckled.

Maria grinned closing her eyes leaning back against her pillow.

"You really care bout those kids don't you?"

"If I don't who will?" He said softly.

"I'm going to tell Garrett and Mei that you're going soft." Hill joked.

Coulson only shrugged resting his feet on her bed as he leaned back.

"They'll probably say it's been a long time coming."

The two people trained and paid to lie shared an honest laugh, for the moment being able to ignore the darker side of the job they had to do.

.................................................................................................................................................................................................

The next day

"Where's Tony?"

"Late as usual."

Bruce bemusedly looked at a very annoyed Rhodey who had his arms crossed and his left foot impatiently tapping on the ground.

"Don't worry yourself friend." Thor said placing his hand on Rhodey's shoulder. "I'm sure he is on his way and is unharmed."

"Yeah well he won't be when I get a hold of him."

The three along with the rest of their Environmental class were standing in front of the high school where a school bus was waiting. Needless to say everyone was unhappily waiting for a certain tardy heir to the Stark empire.

"I swear he'll be late to his own funeral." Rhodey remarked.

"I'm sure he has a good excuse." Bruce reasoned.

"You really believe that?" Rhodey asked skeptically.

"No I was just trying to be positive." Bruce sheepishly smiled.

Ms.O'Hara looked down at her watch and sighed noting that they were already twenty minutes behind schedule.

"Ok everyone get on the bus, time to go."

"I'm here! I'm here!" I'm not late am I?"

The group turned around to see Tony running towards them, a large backpack strapped to his back.

"There he is." said a relieved Thor.

"And that's a very large backpack." Bruce noted, Rhodey rolled his eyes.

"He's probably overcompensating for..."

"You know you have a foul mind I ever tell you that?" Tony said as he ran up to them, bending over to catch his breath.

Ms.O'Hara walked up to them hand on her left hip.

"Better late than never Mister Stark?"

"Seems...that...way." Tony panted.

"Everybody on the bus." she said shaking her head."

The students shuffled onto the bus murmuring to each other along the way. Rhodey hit Tony on the arm as they walked towards the bus.

"Ow! What the hell man?"

Rhodey glared at him.

"This is really getting old man. What's your excuse this time."

"Hey her name wasn't excuse it was Melanie. Or was it Mindy... anyway she happens to be a very nice girl, wants to be a reporter. Or did she want to be a botanist..." Tony scrunched his forehead as he tried(and failed) to remember. Rhodey just stared at him in wide eyed disbelief.

"You're insufferable."

"Love you too."

The two walked up the steps of the bus and moved towards the back of the bus.

"And what's with the backpack anyway?" Rhodey questioned as they weaved their way through the students who were choosing their seats.

"She said bring any essential supplies." Tony reasoned.

"Since when do you pay attention in class?"

Tony ignored him as he sat down in the seat behind Tony and Bruce.

"And do you always have to take the window seat?" Rhodey whined as he sat down next to Tony

"Maybe if you moved faster Grandma you could have the window seat from time to time."

Bruce and Thor peered back over their seat leaning over to look at Tony and Rhodey with amused expressions.

"Hey Tony you wouldn't happen to have your suit in that bag do you?" Bruce questioned.

"No of course not don't be silly." Tony waved his hand dismissively.

"It's in here." He said raising his arm showing his red and gold bracelet.

"Why does it matter if you have your suit?" Rhodey asked.

"Our friend here made a wager with Steve proclaiming he could go the whole trip without his suit." Thor answered.

Rhodey looked at Tony as if a second head sprouted out of his neck.

"Are you insane?"

"No I'm not. My mother had me tested." Tony answered seriously.

"What if something 'dangerous' happens?"

"Calm down will you.I still have the suit in case something happens genius."Tony said looking out the window as the bus drove away from the school. "And besides..."

"What's the worse that could happen?"


	17. Hunted Part One

"So what do you think it is this time? Alien Invasion? Evil Jack O'Lantern? Ooh I know!... Evil genius octopus."

Steve side-eyed the archer walking next to him as he tried to make some sort of sense out of the nonsensical diatribe that was flowing out of his teammate. Steve and Clint had just been called out of their gym class by Coulson so naturally the two Avengers assumed that there was some sort of crisis that they needed to attend to. Well _Steve_ assumed, Clint on the other hand had been spewing out all kinds of "theories" about what sort of situation it was that they were walking into.

"Hey, maybe there's like a giant eater of worlds or something that's heading towards Earth!" Clint theorized excitedly.

"Now you're just acting crazy Clint," Steve finally said shaking his head. "And besides, if something that serious was happening don't you think Coulson would assemble the whole team? Or involve the military and warn, I don't know EVERYBODY, for that matter?"

"Maybe..." Clint said as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Or maybe Coulson realized that we're the heavy hitters of the team and the others weren't needed!" The archer chuckled causing Steve to roll his eyes silently as they both continued their walk through the school's currently empty hallways.

"You okay Clint?" Steve asked finally eying his fellow Avenger with a tired but concerned appraisal.

"You seem a little more... "snappy" than usual."

Clint turned his head towards his leader with a cocked eyebrow that eventually sagged down in understanding. Hawkeye shrugged his shoulders at Captain America and gave him a sheepish grin.

"Well you know I figured since Stark is gone at the moment I'd pick up the slack in the douche bag department."

"Well if that's the case then you're doing a stand up job."

"Thanks I appreciate it," Clint replied earnestly.

Steve stifled a laugh as they reached the door to Coulson's office, though Clint couldn't help but allow one last quip to escape as Steve turned the doorknob. "I do think that if a world eater was heading towards we would do a _fantastic_ job of stopping it."

When they stepped into the office the vice principal looked up from the file he was reading titled "Project:Falcon"

"Good morning gentleman. As you know we're spread a little thin because of the field trip so back-up won't be available for you two," Coulson greeted as he placed the file on his desk.

"What's the mission?" Steve asked as Clint crossed his arms across his chest silently.

Coulson picked up an iPad off his desk and dragged out a picture of a tall muscular bald man to show to the Avengers.

"This is Carl Creel, he has the ability to absorb any type of energy by merely touching it's source."

"Cool party trick," Clint remarked.

"About half an hour ago broke into a S.H.I.E.L.D warehouse and stole a piece of S.H.I.E.L.D property," Coulson continued stone-faced while ignoring Clint.

"What did he steal?" Steve questioned.

"It's classified."

"Of course it is," Clint deadpanned.

"S.H.I.E.L.D agents currently have Creel pinned down in Central Park. Your mission is to help them apprehend them and retrieve what he stole," Coulson ordered.

"We'll get right on it," Steve assured as Clint mockingly saluted their handler. The vice principal shook his head opting to only turn his attention back to the files on his desk.

Steve sighed as he pushed Clint out of the office muttering apologies to Coulson as they exited. Once the door closed behind them leaving him by himself the older nab exhaled in exasperation and lightly rubbed his temples with his fingers.

"It could be worse Phil, at least you don't have to deal with Stark."

* * *

When Tony became Iron Man he thought he was finished with the more...boring parts of being a teenager. No more chores(not that he ever had any to begin with)...no more curfew...no more... useless and trivial things.

Yet here he was. Sitting here...on a bus...going to a forest...that had dirt and bugs.

Irony-1, Tony Stark-0.

"What ales you Stark?"

Oh and then there was the fact that Tony was going to said technology free kingdom of dirt and other unsanitary things with his neurotic best friend, his walking time bomb of green fueled anger of a roommate, and the ever so charming god of blunder himself; Thor.

He was really enjoying that last part.

"Tony it's rude to ignore your friend," Bruce scolded.

The genius billionaire playboy lifted his head up from it's resting spot on the window seat, his brown close set eyes darted back and forth between Bruce and Thor who were both leaning over the back of their seat staring expectantly at the Iron Avenger.

"May I help you Jekyll and Hyde," Tony barked.

"Thor asked you a question," Bruce retorted evenly. Tony rolled his eyes and them squinted them at the Norse teen sitting next to his roommate.

"You need something Shakespeare?"

Thor shrugged casually as he wrapped his bicep around the back of his seat drumming his fingers on it lightly. "You look unwell friend. Almost as if you are not looking forward to our adventure."

Tony resisted the urge to roll his eyes again not wanting to take any more heat from either Bruce or Rhodey.

"Oh no Billy Bob Thor-ton, why would you ever think such a thing," he said mockingly. "In fact, I can barely contain my excitement."

Bruce rolled his eyes frowning at the inventor but Thor only smiled as if Tony's sarcasm flew over his head.

"I understand my comrade, I too have felt such elation on the eve of a grand journey. In fact once when my brother and I were set to venture into Jotenhaim.."

Tony's face sunk once the warrior teen began to delve into another one of his many tales of Asgard. The young heir took a deep breathe and slowly turned towards his window and began to softly bang his head on it.

Stupid Rogers and his stupid bet.

* * *

"Hey Garrett. It's Phil."

Coulson leaned back into his office chair placing his feet up on his desk. Adjusting his phone to rest in between his ear and his shoulder he flipped through the file he held in his hands.

"I have my recommendations for the Falcon project...Yeah I'd like to recommend Sam Wilson over Abner Jenkins...I just think that with his personality he would be a..."

Coulson's right eyebrow lifted when Natasha casually strolled into his office. The teen clothed in black jeans and a blue top with brown jacket walked over to the other side of his desk and sat on the edge of it swinging her legs back and forth in a casual, almost child-like way.

"Hey John, I have to go. Do me a favor will you and give Fury my recommendations," Phil's forehead scrunched up as he pulled away from his phone to glare at in disgust. "Because something came up that's why. Look just do it will you I'll owe you one... Thanks."

Coulson groaned as he hung up causing Natasha to bite back a chuckle although she did allow a small smile to show.

Fury's right hand man directed his attention towards the Avenger sitting in his office, interlocking his fingers together in front of his chest and twiddling his thumbs.

"Shouldn't you be in class Romanoff?" He asked coolly.

Natasha rolled her eyes as she hopped down from his desk and moved over to the front of his desk and slid down into one of the chairs facing it. "Teenage think-tank remember?"

"That's just a cover for when there's an 'incident'. Remember?" He shot back.

She shrugged her shoulders as she nonchalantly crossed her right leg over her left.

Coulson straightened himself as he stared at the young agent trying to get a read on her, piercing green eyes stared right back at him. "If you're unhappy about something then say it, don't try to pull that silent ice queen crap with me."

Natasha quirked her upper lip at Coulson's impatience but steeled herself still trying to maintain her "ice queen" glare.

"You and Fury are hiding something from the team."

Coulson dropped his feet off of his desk keeping his facial expression bland and emotionless. "What's the issue Romanoff?"

The two agents sat in silence as they competed against each other in a contest of glares, neither gaining any sort of ground or leeway on the other.

"You told me my job was to act as a liaison between S.H.I.E.L.D and the Avengers."

"What's the issue Romanoff?" Coulson repeated beginning to grow impatient.

"The issue is that you're not keeping me in the loop."

Coulson sighed inwardly but avoided the near fatal mistake of showing the young agent in front of him any sign of weariness. "We told you we'd keep you updated on all essential information and we have done just that."

Natasha crossed her arms and started to lightly tap her fingers on her right arm. "You really expect me to believe that?"

"I expect you to follow orders."

"How am I supposed to follow orders if I don't know what they really are?" Natasha countered.

She wasn't saying anything that Coulson hadn't already tried to tell Fury to no avail. One of the first rules of this business Coulson learned was that you can't always control how much of the whole picture your superiors decide to show you. Of course try telling that to the stubborn young read-head staring at him.

"Do you remember what I told you when I first came to you with this assignment?"

"Don't change the subject."

"I told you that it would be a good opportunity for you to act your age for once. To relax a little."

"You think high school's relaxing?" Natasha asked half amused and half surprised.

"Touche." Coulson acquiesced. "The point is that you should focus more on being a part of the team and less about being what Fury and less on being an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D."

"That's surprising coming from you," Natasha remarked referring to Coulson's usual by the books outlook on things.

"Let's just say that the students aren't the only ones learning here," he said allowing a small paternal smile to form on his face.

Natasha looked back at her superior with her head quizzically cocked to the side slightly until she eventually shook her head and rolled her eyes playfully.

"Nice talking to you Phil," The Black Widow raised herself up out of the chair and walked to the door placing her hand on the handle to turn it.

"You're doing a good job by the way."

Natasha looked over shoulder staring at the smiling vice-principal in confusion.

"The Avengers are working together better than we calculated. You're a good team player," He explained.

The young assassin wore an unreadable even to Coulson look on her face. "They have a good leader."

"Captain Rogers is acclimating well, probably helps that he has a good roommate."

"He'd be fine without me."

Coulson stared at the teen with that bland look on his face but there was something different sparkling in his eyes. "Get to class Natasha."

Natasha nodded at him saying nothing as she turned the door knob and stepped out. As soon as the door was closed and he was sure she was out of hearing distance Coulson sighed and picked Sam Wilson's file back up.

"Oh to be young and clueless again."

* * *

"And that my friends is how Baldur and I defeated Vlik and his horde of trolls."

Tony had never been someone dumb enough or bored enough to wonder what it would be like to have one's brain put into an active blender, but he now knew what the answer would be after listening to a number of Thor's stories. And frankly if he had the choice he was leaning towards putting his head in the blender.

"Nice story Thor," Bruce said politely earning another roll of the eyes from Tony.

"Yeah really, Shakespeare would be proud I'm sure."

Rhodey frowned at his best friend sitting next to him before he punched him in the arm.

"Ow! What's your problem Rhodey!" Tony whined as he rubbed his now sore left appendage.

"What's my problem?" Rhodey gawked at the omnipresent source of frustration. "I'm not the one who uses sarcasm as his main form of communication."

Bruce and Thor turned towards each other both silently noting the increasing tension in the air.

"Do you need a tissue or something? Because I have some in my backpack," Tony mocked.

Rhodey threw his hands up in the air and groaned rather loudly. Loud enough in fact that it caused some of the other students on the bus to turn around and look at the arguing friends. Bruce and Thor took that opportunity to sink further into their own seats to stay out of the line of fire. Rhodey's eyes darted across the confines of the bus at all the confused faces staring at him.

"What are y'all staring at!"

The students slowly turned away, some of them mumbling to themselves about how they were sick of all the "unstable people" that kept popping up lately. Rhodey shook his head feeling the vein in his forehead beginning to throb. He let out a deep breathe and tried his best to find his peaceful happy place. The fact that his best friend was snickering his head off right next tom him made that rather difficult.

Very difficult.

"Why do I even try Tony?" Rhodey weakly breathed out as he leaned his head back against his seat trying his best to avoid eye contact with the source of his growing headache. "This isn't funny Tony."

That only proceeded to make Tony laugh even more, so much more so that the young lad had to curl into his window to calm himself down although Rhodey could still hear a few muffled chuckles escape. After the last of his best friend's laughs died down Rhodey finally caved in and turned himself to the side to check on Tony. The young hero wiped his eyes dry with his thumb and let out a sigh that seemingly calmed him down.

Well that was until he turned around and saw Rhodey's visibly near manic state.

"What?" Rhodey growled as Tony nearly exploded from holding in his laughter.

"N-nothing. Nothing at all," he choked out biting his bottom lip. Rhodey rolled his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose as Tony finally belted out all the laughter he was holding back.

Thor and Bruce meanwhile were tactfully ignoring the two.

"Yeah just yuck it up Tony, yuck it up," Rhodey grumbled.

Tony to his credit finally stopped laughing and regained his composure as he cleared his throat rather loudly. Unnecessarily loudly if you asked Rhodey.

"You know you may want to get somebody to check out that vein popping out of your forehead. If you need help I know a guy..."

It was at that moment that Bruce suddenly sat up and leaned over the back of his seat looking over Tony and Rhodey. His eyes darted back and forth between them and then suddenly the young genius looked at Rhodey he flashed the powerless teen an uncharacteristically sly grin.

"You get those too?" he asked. "I thought I was the only one."

The last of the color drained out of Rhodey's face as he slouched back into his own seat. "I'm starting to see a recurring theme here."

Tony quickly put his hand to his heart in mock offense. "Are you insinuating that I may be responsible for your vein situation."

"Nice use of the word insinuation." Bruce complimented.

"Thanks roommie."

Rhodey stopped paying attention as the two geniuses began to banter back and forth about seemingly nothing at all, he would definitely have to keep an eye on that for the future. Having one insufferably sarcastic superhero friend was enough-but multiple?

Rhodey didn't think he could handle something like that catastrophic.

And it was ideas like that that made him reconsider all the times he scoffed when his uncle tried to get him to consider joining the military when he got old enough. Shaking his head Rhodey slinked further into his seat until he looked almost scrunched up. With his oldest friend and the 15 year old prodigy deeply entrenched in some conversation about a science problem he was way too tired to understand the young man thought that he may finally, for the first time on that bus ride, get the chance to just sit and collect his thoughts.

A thought that quickly withered and died when Thor too sat up and leaned over looking right at him with a toothy grin that just reeked of bravado.

"Friend Rhodes, I must tell you about the time Volstagg and I battled a herd of stampeding Bilgesnipe."

Fricking superheroes.

* * *

Steve and Clint-now dressed as Captain America and Hawkeye-pulled up to Central Park in the S.H.I.E.L.D issued black sedan they had borrowed from Coulson.

Steve leaned forward squinting his eyes slightly from his seat in shotgun to search for the other agents Coulson said would be there.

"There they are. Over there." He said a few seconds later, Clint glanced over to where Steve pointed and saw that there were indeed about four other black SUVs just like their's lined up in a blockade around the entrance to Central Park.

"Looks like we're late to the party." Clint commented as he turned the steering wheel to bring the van over to join the others. Steve reached behind his seat to grab his shield, rubbing his thumb lightly over one of the many scratches on it. The van slowly rolled to a halt as Clint pulled it into park and reached under his seat for his bow and quiver.

"So what's the plan Cap?" Clint inquired as the two heroes piled out of the van. Steve rolled his neck as he adjusted the wrist strap of his shield.

"First we should link up with the agent in charge here, then we plan on how to deal with Creel."

"You're the boss." Clint acquiesced as he snapped out his purple shades and put them on.

The two Avengers marched over to the S.H.I.E.L.D blockade in silence. Out of all of his teammates(Hulk notwithstanding)Clint was the one Steve had the least amount of experience working with. Sure they had hung out technically but it was usually when someone else was around. And besides that he was the only one of his teammates that he doesn't have a class with.

Not a one.

Steve couldn't help but feel a little bit uncomfortable at the fact that he doesn't yet have a good read on who the archer is and how he likes to operate. On one hand he seemed to follow his own drum as evidenced by his skipping class when the Dynamo robbed that bank. But on the other hand he knew from the Hulk incident that he was willing to follow orders.

"Twenty bucks says that the suit with the the glasses is the man in charge."

The man Clint was referring to ended the conversation he was having with another agent once he noticed the two walking towards him. He raised his hand waiving two fingers to motion them to come closer.

"Captain America. Hawkeye. I'm Jasper Sitwell the agent in charge here." Sitwell, a youngish looking bespectacled bald man met the Avengers halfway and shook each of their hands.

The man Sitwell had been previously conversing with walked up behind him and nodded at both Steve and Clint.

"Name's Rumlow. I'm the commanding officer for S.T.R.I.K.E."

Steve nodded at them both but then arched a masked eyebrow at Rumlow. "What's S.T.R.I.K.E?"

"It stands for Special Tactical Reserve for International Key Emergencies." Rumlow answered.

Steve noticed that Clint was eyeing Rumlow cautiously and when he looked down he saw that the archer was lightly rubbing his bow absentmindedly with his thumb. "Seems a little overkill for one guy don't you think?" Clint asked lightly scowling for some reason.

Steve followed his teammates gaze past Rumlow and Sitwell and towards the blockade made out of SUVs. Crowded around the vehicles were ten agents dressed in the same black swat gear as Rumlow. And all were heavily armed.

Rumlow crossed his well defined arms across his chest and lightly stared at Clint with an emotionless but hardened glare.

"All due respect kid, but you don't really know the situation we're dealing with."

"Then why don't you enlighten us." Steve interrupted. The first avenger briefly glanced at to Clint to see how he was reacting to Rumlow's tone but the archer's shades caused him to appear stone faced.

Rumlow looked Steve up and down for a moment before he slowly nodded.

"Follow me."

Steve turned to Clint who only shrugged his shoulders which Steve interpreted as a sign of resignation. The two followed Rumlow and Sitwell over to one of the S.H.I.E.L.D vehicles where a couple of agents were hanging around.

"Rollins. Gutierrez." Rumlow said acknowledging two of the agents. The one he had referred to as Rollins nodded back at his CO but Steve noticed that he was eyeing Clint and himself with an air of apprehension. But Steve didn't know why, after all weren't they all on the same side

"Rollins show our guests what we're dealing with."

Rollins wordlessly took a pair of binoculars and held it out for Steve to take. Captain America looked down at the piece of equipment and then looked back up at Rollins who stared back with that same expressionless look that Clint had been wearing since they got there.

Apparently it was the theme of the party.

Steve grabbed the binoculars from Rollins and walked up next to Rumlow who was now leaning over the hood of one of the SUV's facing the Park.

"Over there by the fountain," Rumlow said never once taking his eyes off of the spot he was looking at. Steve looked through the binoculars and directed them towards the area Rumlow was referring to.

"What do you see?" Clint asked as he walked up next to him. Once Steve focused his vision he saw a towering man,who matched up with picture of Creel that Coulson had showed him, sitting on a park bench in front of the fountain with a steel box in his lap. Creel, like seemingly everybody else that day, was completely expressionless as he stared off into the distance.

"He's just...sitting there."

Steve put down the binoculars onto the hood of the truck and rotated his head to look at Clint who chewed the inside of his cheek before he huffed out something between a chuckle and a scoff.

"Like I said-" Clint began raising his upper lip at Rumlow. "-Kinda overkill for one guy."

Rumlow started to slowly move towards Clint with a clenched fist but Steve got in between them before any argument or confrontation or occur.

"All due respect-" Steve started putting a hand out towards both Rumlow and Clint who both surprisingly(or not surprisingly based on how the day was going)wore completely neutral expressions on their faces despite the growing tension. "-but he has a point."

Sitwell, who had been up to that point more or less silent, went up to Steve and Clint with a knowing look like he was a parent who just figured out why their kids were misbehaving.

"Coulson didn't tell you." He stated firmly. Steve and Clint shared a confused glance although the archer crossed his arms like he wasn't the least bit surprised.

"Coulson didn't tell us what?" Steve probed growing more and more aggravated the further this conversation went. Everyone else may have been playing their emotions close to their chest but he was getting real tired of all the secrets people seemed to keep to themselves in this modern age and he would be damned if he wouldn't show it.

Sitwell sighed obviously not wanting to have been the one to have to break the news to two testosterone filled teenagers who just happened to be superheroes, but he wasn't necessarily surprised either.

"That box Creel has is an old WWII artifact recovered from a HYDRA base that was raided by the Howling Commandos," Steve visibly flinched at the mention of HYDRA and his old squad. He had to tighten his hold on his shield in order to keep his outward emotions in check. He definitely needed to have a talk with Vice-Principal Coulson when he got back.

"What does it do?" Clint asked. Sitwell took of his glasses and started to wipe them clean with a small rag he pulled out of his coat pocket.

"We don't know. HYDRA was still trying to figure that out when they were seized."

"Fair enough, but that still doesn't explain the need to have entire SWAT team go after one guy," Clint posed.

"Creel's a metahuman." Rumlow interrupted. "Has the ability to duplicate the properties of anything he touches."

"For example, if he touches that street light pole and concentrated his entire body would then become coated in metal." Sitwell added.

"Sort of like an armor." Steve deduced.

"Exactly."

Steve nodded more to himself than anyone else and decided to take one more look at Creel through the binoculars. Satisfied with the fact that their target still had yet to move he put the binoculars down and turned to Clint.

"You ready for that plan you asked or?"

Clint smirked as he snapped open his bow. "I'm all ears."

Steve nodded at his comrade with a small but game smile.

"Rumlow you and your S.T.R.I.K.E team are on back up detail. I want your men to set up sniper positions all around the perimeter of the park. If it looks like he's too much for us to handle then take him out."

Rumlow crossed his arms back across his chest but he nonetheless nodded his acquiescence after Sitwell shot a look at him. "Yes sir."

Sitwell nodded and looked back at Steve. "Good luck Captain."

Steve showed his gratitude with a slight nod of his head and then turned back towards Clint.

"Ready to go?"

"Let's do it."

* * *

"Are we there yet?"

Bruce just couldn't help but roll his eyes at the sound of his roommates's whining.

"Really Tony. You're resorting to that, have you run out of any other options?" The young genius asked as he peered over the back of his seat to see a rather manic looking Tony. Bruce gave the billionaire a quick once over observing how he was slowly yet frantically tapping his finger on the windowsill and the slight twitch of his left eye.

"Don't you act all high and mighty on me Banner, you know damn well we've been driving on this bus for FAR too long." Tony responded his voice raising slightly in both volume and octaves. The fact that the other students were no longer reacting to his outbursts was a testament to how interesting the bus ride had been so far.

"It's only been a little over half an hour Tony."

"Isn't that more than enough?" The teen known to his friends as Iron Man asked incredulously, his left eye twitching in the meantime.

Bruce eyed his friend carefully cocking his right eyebrow at him but careful not to do or say anything to further upset Tony's seemingly more fragile by the minute state. "Whatever you say Tony."

After Tony's eye twitched yet again Bruce decided that at moment it was probably best that he turn away and let his teammate convulse in peace. A quick glance to the right told him that Rhodes was in no better shape himself.

As Bruce settled back into his own seat he had to use the best of his willpower to stop his own eye from twitching. He knew that high school tended to be a stressful experience but this was supposed to be a relaxing trip. A chance to relax and enjoy nature, not be at each other's throats like usual.

The young genius sighed as he looked outside the window next to him ,all of this nonsense started because Tony was... well he was being Tony. Since he was in a sour mood about having to go on this trip in the first place so of course by his logic that meant that he had an obligation to make everybody else just as miserable as he was. And that of course infuriated Rhodey and after a while the pair's squabbling became so unbearable that Thor had to go to sleep before he grabbed both of them and throttled the two of them.

Thor's snoring was much easier to deal with then all out brawl between three of them.

"Hey wake up you're snoring."

Bruce didn't say that out loud did he? He wasn't even thinking about complaining, Thor wasn't even snoring anymore. The stress must be causing his mind to play tricks on him.

"Seriously you're starting to drool on me."

Okay so he definitely was not talking out loud as that was obviously a female voice, Bruce may not be done with puberty yet but he wasn't that bad. Plus Thor was nowhere close to drooling on him, he wasn't even leaning on him.

"Peter, seriously wake up."

"Hhh-huh...Oh...Sorry M.J."

Ah now that makes sense.

Bruce chuckled at his own little bout of mental tomfoolery. He hadn't been thinking out loud against his will(of course he hadn't been)he had simply overhead his classmates Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson. He forgot that they had sat in the seat directly in front of Thor and himself.

Peter wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his shirt to kill the line of drool that Mary Jane was complaining about. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes with the balls of his hands and stretched his arms above his shoulders as he strangled out a rather long yawn.

Mary Jane rolled her eyes at her best friend of over ten years who had not more than a minute ago been deep asleep on her shoulder. But what's a little drool spot on her new favorite shirt amongst friends right?

And it not's like she wasn't accustomed to what it meant to be Peter Parker's friend by now. Ever since that fateful day her six year old self knocked on her new neighbor's door for the first time and the little boy with shaggy hair opened it their immediate friendship had been quite the ride.

Between defending him from bullies like Flash Thompson and being associated with his overall clumsiness in overall proved be quite the tiring prospect at time. She pulled a lock of her long red hair behind her ear as she looked over her bestie sitting beside her who was still busy rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and smoothing out his ruffled hair.

The biggest dork in high school. Or at least that's what the entire sophomore grade believe, there were plenty of instances she could think of where someone like Flash or Eddie Brock came up to her and asked why she even bothered hanging out with someone of Peter's like and status when she was easily be one of the most popular girls in their grade.

But she never cared about any of that, Peter was one of the first real friends she ever had and sure his clumsiness became hard to deal with some times but if Harry and Gwen were able to deal with it then why couldn't she? Plus if it wasn't for her he would have never asked out Gwen in the first place.

See he needed her. Not that she was only friends with him out of some form of pity of guilt. She just cared about him and was simply aware of how much of a mess he would be without her. She took one more look at his disheveled state and shook her head. Not that he wasn't a big enough mess already. She couldn't count the instances where he promised to help her study and then proceeded to stand her up and then fail to have a decent excuse for it when she would confront him about it the very next day.

He would only look at her sheepishly with those eyes of his and his face would look all haggard like he had just went through the worst night ever. Kind of like the way he looks right now.

"So... Are we there yet."

Peter smirked at Mary Jane who shook her head in response as she gave him what he had dubbed years ago as the "evil eye". It was actually more of an entire look instead of a glare since it included a raised eyebrow and a frown.

"Nope. Sorry to disappoint you tiger."

"Oh yeah cause it's totally your fault this bus is moving so slow." Peter teased which caused Mary Jane let out a laugh and hit him on the arm.

"No wonder you're always getting stuffed into lockers." She teased lightly as he rubbed the arm she hit.

"It's cuz of my charming personality." He quipped. The slight crinkle of her forehead led him to believe that she was trying her best not to roll her eyes at him. "By the way could I uh...look at your notes for next week's test when we get back?"

Ah there was the look again. Once Peter saw Mary Jane bring the evil eye back out he started to chuckle nervously and reached behind his neck to rub it nervously.

"You mean the A.P enviro test that Ms.O'Hara has been telling us about for the last two weeks?"

"Uh...yeah."

"The test that is based on material that Ms.O'Hara has been reviewing with us in class yesterday and the day before that?"

Peter gulped nervously. "Uh-huh."

"For Pete's sake Pete!" Mary Jane bursted out raising her voice which made Peter flinch again. "It's like half the time you're never in class and then whenever you are in class you're asleep! What do you have some secret second life or something?"

A single bead of sweat slowly dripped down the side of his face. "What!? No of course not! What would even... make you say such a thing hehe...he..." Peter laughed nervously as he tried to regulate his breathing back to normal.

Mary Jane gave him the look again but a second later her face visibly relaxed until a tiny little smile showed itself at the corner of her mouth. "Yeah I guess that is a little ridiculous."

Peter mentally sighed a breath of relief as he quickly wiped away the head of sweat that was by now almost at his chin.

"But!-" Mary Jane started pointing her finger at Peter accusingly making Peter gulp again and shrink into his cushion in fear. "-At least that would mean you had a decent excuse for always breaking your dates and being tired all the time."

"Yeah I guess you got a point." Peter conceded running a hand through his hair. Mary Jane looked at him and her face almost immediately softened. She hadn't meant to make him feel bad. Feeling a little guilty herself she touched him on the shoulder and offered a reassuring smile.

"Hey don't worry about it. But I guess it is a good thing that your not my boyfriend." She joked elbowing him in the side which made him smirk at her. "Honestly I don't know how Gwen deals with you sometimes."

"We have an...understanding."

Mary Jane shrugged. "Well it seems to be working. Oh and yes you can look at my notes when we get back." She said nonchalantly as she looked down at her nails.

"Thanks M.J." Peter smiled.

"Don't mention it." Mary Jane said rubbing Peter's hair teasingly which caused him to groan and knock her hand away. The two old friends started to laugh together when stood up at the front of the bus and cleared her throat.

"Alright class after we settle in at the camp ground we're going to go on a class hike."

Ms.O'Hara then turned around and looked out the window.

"Ah. We're here."

Various murmurs of appreciation and joy were heard throughout the students though nobody was too vocal as to disturb everybody else. Well everybody except for a one Tony Stark.

"Well it's about damn time."

* * *

He watched them from the shadows.

15 teenagers. 2 grown-ups.

1 target.

The first and sometimes the most important part of the hunt is finding your prey and waiting for the moment when they stray from the pack. That is when you strike.

17 faces. Only 1 out of 15 matters.

Will be with his best friend.

There.

The prey is moving with the herd.

But soon...soon he will stray.

And then the job will be over.

But now... now is when the hunt begins.


	18. Hunted Part Two

"Don't stop running!"

"Come on! Come on!"

"Keep going Tony! Keep going!"

It all happened so fast. One moment they were all on a hike, the next they were scrambling around like a bomb went off.

It reminded Tony too much of _that_ **(1)**. He couldn't even remember what happened after that, all he knew was that both Rhodey and himself had been separated from the others in all the confusion. And they hadn't stopped running since.

Whoever did this had left booby traps all around their camp, Tony himself saw one poor soul get caught up in a hunting net. He felt particularly lucky since the guy had been standing right next to him. But the worse part of it was that in all the chaos his bracelet that contained his wrist fell off and he was forced to leave it behind. It looks like for better or worse he was going to win his bet with Steve.

He just hoped he would live to collect the prize.

"Tony, hold up. I think we're safe for now. We might as well stop and come up with a plan or something."

"Good idea," Tony said as he slowed to a halt and sat down against a tree. "I thought my calves were gonna explode." Rhodey walked up to the very same tree and leaned against it while Tony threw his head back and let out a somewhat shaky breath he had been holding in.

"So which one of your super powered psycho playmates do you think it is this time Tony?"

Tony rested his head back further against the bark of the tree and closed his eyes for a moment. "I don't know. Dynamo and Whiplash are both in jail. Besides, this doesn't really fit their style."

Rhodey nodded. "You see those traps back at the camp? Looks like they were made with a specific target in mind."

Normally Tony would mock Rhodey's military like dialect, but even he knew this was hardly the time for his usual antics. "You mean like a kidnapping?"

"Yeah. A psycho Rambo version of a kidnapping. But a kidnapping."

"I was thinking the same thing," Tony sighed. Above all else he needed to rest his eyes, if just for a moment. He wouldn't be any help if he couldn't think straight from exhaustion. So he shut down, only for a second. Just a little rest to help him "recharge".

"Kinda seems like something Obidiah would have done," Rhodey mentioned casually.

Tony opened his eyes and frowned at his best friend.

"Yeah well Obidiah is kinda dead, so I think we can cross him off the list."

Rhodey shrugged his shoulders. "Well do you know anyone else who would want to snatch you up?"

This time it was Tony's turn to shrug. "I don't think we have enough time to write a list that big. Hey..." The frown he was wearing turned into a full on annoyed snarl once the billionaire deciphered his best friend or "handler's" implication.

"Who said crazy pants is after me anyway? Maybe he's after one of our esteemed classmates. Need I remind you that I'm kind of a part of a 'walking target' fraternity nowadays."

Rhodey raised both his hands up in surrender, the way his face lowered all the way down to his small uneasy smile let Tony know that he wasn't going to argue with him or push the issue. "Alright, fair enough. I guess who this guy, or girl, is after doesn't really matter if we don't know where the hell we are in the first place."

Tony had almost forgotten that they were lost in a forest preserve with no way to find out which way is the right way.

"Thanks for making me feel all warm and cuddly about our situation Rhodester."

"I try."

Tony shook his head as he leaned back against the tree he had temporarily claimed as his. This was exactly the reason he felt nature "sucked ass". Not only did they have some maniac jumping around the trees with harmful intent,but they also had no idea whether their friends were alright.

This was all stupid Steve's fault with his stupid perfect teeth and his stupid irresistible bet. Of course it wasn't really stupid Steve's fault that he dropped his stupid Iron stupid suit.

But then again, blaming stupid Steve did make stupid Tony feel stupid better.

"All right -" Rhodey detached himself from 'their' tree and looked down at the stupid genius with his arms crossed in front of his chest. Hre looked like he was going to ask Tony the question he _really_ did not want to be asked. "-what do we do now?"

He was afraid of that.

"Honestly...I have no idea."

* * *

**Earlier**

Bruce wasn't always the biggest fan of nature. He didn't dislike it, he just never really gave it the time of day all that often. Most of the time he was inside busy working on an experiment in whatever foster home he was staying in for that month.

Then the _Other Guy_ happened and well...after that the young aspiring scientist made it a habit to embrace anything and everything that could even remotely be considered relaxing.

And just like that, nature became one of his favorite things.

So with all the Tony Stark outbursts aside Bruce really was enjoying this field trip. Not only was the forest preserve absolutely beautiful but Thor, Rhodey, and yes even Tony proved to be pretty good company. Sure some would consider a bunch of trees and bushes to be boring, but those people never experienced a hike with a Norse god and a teenage billionaire.

Thor spent most of the long walk effortlessly regaling the other three with wildly descriptive tales about his childhood running around the Asgardian forests. Of course that left Bruce with the unenviable job of fantastically explaining to any of their classmates who overhead them that Thor was just practicing to audition for the school theater.

They were very descriptive stories.

But by then Tony and Rhodey had both cooled down a bit from their spat on the bus. In Bruce's "professional" opinion the two of them had a routine that they stuck to.

First they would argue loudly and obnoxiously. Then after that they would separate and go to their proverbial corners. And finally, they would come back together and laugh.

Until the next time they argued.

But for now they were still in that third stage. So it was more than likely that there peaceful walk would remain peaceful. The pair actually made quite the dynamic duo on the rare occasions they were completely on the same page. Tony's biting sarcasm had a way of harmonizing with Rhodey's dry wit, when they weren't being annoying they were pretty entertaining.

To be completely honest Bruce was just happy to have people around that he could consider friends. Granted he wasn't the most popular kid before he became the Hulk, but after that his social life was practically nonexistent. If Betty never came around he would have been completely alone.

Now he wasn't.

Sure his new gang was quirky to say the least. What with their varying degrees of moodiness and a variety of psychological problems that would make a psychiatrist rethink their choice of career. But at the same time they were the best company a teen could ever ask for. Whether it was Steve's natural honesty, Natasha's deadpan but supportive tones, or even Tony and Clint's dark but hilarious sense of humor. They had their own little ways of making a person's day better.

Again, when they weren't being annoying.

"Ok. Time for a game."

Of course Tony would be the one to crash Bruce's train of thought.

"This can't be good." Rhodey muttered making no effort to be quiet about it.

Tony took in stride however. And for Tony Stark, taking it in stride meant outright ignoring the snarkiness being presented to him. "Gentleman. I think it's time that we have a good old fashioned bet."

Bruce shook his head. He was starting to run out of adjectives he could use to describe Tony Stark and his headache causing ways. "Really Tony. You just made a bet with Steve _yesterday."_

Tony looked at him as if he was just asked a question as simple as what his name was.

"So? Today's a new day."

"Verily!" Thor bellowed. "I commend you on your attitude my comrade. Now tell me, what is this wager you seek to bring to us?"

It was hard not to love his kindly naivete.

Tony patted the muscular blonde appreciatively on his shoulder.

"Why can't you be more like our dear Thorton, Banner? He's open to things that are fun."

"What's the bet Tony?" Rhodey interrupted, Bruce could tell that the more sarcastic Tony got the more Rhodey's patience fell.

Tony for his part refrained from goading him any further and resigned himself to stick with smirking.

"It's a simple over or under bet. Over or under 2 months until Spangles and Arachnid Chick start sucking each others faces off."

Bruce wished he could say he was surprised.

"Seriously. You're going to gamble on Steve and Natasha's personal lives."

"What? Barton's already in on it. He says 6 weeks but I say 4 months. There's no way Rogers gets the hint that quickly."

Bruce wanted to say that he was incredulous but that word just didn't seem to carry enough weight for this situation. Confounded maybe. Flabbergasted?

"So you're telling me that you made a bet with Steve while you were already in a bet with Clint."

"Yeah. What?"

Rhodey clasped Tony on his shoulder. "I'm telling you this as your friend. You have a serious gambling problem."

"I do not."

"What happened to our camp!"

Bruce bumped into the student walking in front of him who stopped suddenly. Once he steadied himself he saw what the entire class was standing around looking at.

Their camp ground trashed. Their once standing tents now nothing more than torn up rags on the ground.

"All our stuff's been messed up!" A female student cried. It didn't take long for other students to join in.

"What the hell happened!"

"Was it a bear attack!"

"What do we do now!"

"Everybody calm down!" Ms.O'Hara stood in front of her students waving her hands in the air. "This is no time to panic..."

Bruce felt Tony pull him aside from the throng of frantic teens.

"Last time I checked the forest preserves don't have bears, not in New York."

Bruce nodded in agreement. "Something doesn't feel right."

"That's an understatement." Rhodey snorted.

The rest of the class was understandably distressed with the sight of their possessions strewn throughout the dirt. A few football players were huddled together, Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson seemed calmer than most but they were standing closer to each other than they were a moment ago and Mary Jane was chewing her thumb every now and then. Everybody else was either screaming or on the verge of doing so.

"Everything will be alright," Ms.O'Hara was doing her best to maintain authority but Bruce could tell that she was affected by this turn of events as well. "Look, I'll call our bus driver and see if he can come pick us up. In the meantime you should all look through the camp and try to retrieve an valuables."

This seemed to settle them down as the kids quickly dispersed into what was left of the camp leaving Bruce, Tony, Thor, and Rhodey standing at the threshold.

"Well. Let's boogie." Tony predictably sounded less than pleased. He never wanted to go on this outing in the first place and now he had to essentially pick up garbage.

Something the young prodigy doubted his wealthy friend ever had to do so far in his lifespan.

But when Bruce actually turned to look at Tony he didn't see the pouty sharp tongued A-lister that he was expecting to see. No, the almost neutral frown he wore and the fact that his hands were casually resting in the pockets of his sweater didn't betray that of a furious prima donna. The picture it painted instead was that of a tired teenager resigning himself to do something that was most likely unpleasant to him.

It was the most normal and civilian Tony had ever looked.

"You ready?" Tony asked with an arched eyebrow.

Bruce nodded slowly. "Might as well get it over with."

It wasn't until then that Bruce noticed that Thor and Rhodey had already left to check on their own tent. Thankfully Bruce hadn't brought anything with him besides some clothes that he didn't really care that much about. Tony while not in the cheeriest of moods had yet to start whining up to that point.

Maybe today was Bruce's lucky day.

"Hey have you seen my other jacket around anywhere? I can't find it."

Bruce scanned the area around them for Tony's missing article of clothing. He saw some shirts, a sock, a gold chain that said STARK(he should probably tell Tony that he dropped that)but he couldn't find the jacket anywhere. He decided to check the adjacent tents and finally found it by a scruffy classmate of theirs.

"It's over there." Bruce said pointing at it.

Tony's forehead furrowed as he looked to where his "headquarters's buddy" was referring to. Once his eyes locked onto it he whistled to get their classmate Jack Hammer's attention.

"Yo Hammer! Mind throwing me that jacket by your foot?"

Hammer looked around in confusion until he looked down. "Oh. Sure."

The bespectacled teen reached to grab it and then all of sudden became trapped in a hunting net that shot up from the ground. The shockwave that came from it knocked Tony onto his rear and soon the screams of the other students filled the air.

Bruce couldn't keep track of everything that happened, it was as if a gunshot went off. From what he could tell the net sent off a chain of other traps which seemed to be like little cherry bombs. The loud noises caused the others to panic and run off in all different directions. But Bruce couldn't worry about that at the moment, he had to check on Tony.

The scrawny 15 year old ran towards his downed teammate but on the way he noticed something red and shiny on the ground. It was Tony's Iron Man bracelet. It must have flown off in the commotion. He quickly scooped it up and continued on.

He was almost there when he got slammed to the ground when he was hit square in the chest from a fleeing football player.

Once he got over the dizziness he lifted himself off the ground and rubbed his temples. His vision focused a second later but his eyes widened in fear when he did.

Another football player was running towards him and was not watching where he was going.

Crap this really wasn't a good time to Hulk out.

But before he could be completely trampled a firm and strong hand grabbed Bruce by the back of his collar and lifted him out of harms way. And then faster than he could think he was thrown over his rescuer's shoulder.

One glimpse of flowing blonde hair told him it was Thor.

"Are you alright?"

Bruce tried not to vomit as he bounced on the Asgardian's broad shoulder.

"Wait! Thor! We need to help Tony."

Thor to his credit appeared to be in complete control of the situation. "Nay. Rhodes has that under control."

Bruce did his best to calm his stomach and looked up to see Rhodey helping a disoriented Tony off the ground and away from the rabble. Bruce sighed quietly in relief.

But soon the camp seemed to appear farther and farther away.

"Thor where are we going?"

"Deeper into the forest." Thor said looking ahead. "It's best with your predicament that we get as far away from the battlefield as possible."

Well he had a point there.

Seeing no other good option Bruce relaxed in his position. There were still so many questions the last few minutes aroused that he couldn't shake.

Like for starters, what the hell just happened?

* * *

Hawkeye tried not to scream like a little girl. He really did.

But all that bravado junk tends to go right out the window when one is thrown across almost the entire length of a park and then land right smack dab in the middle of a bunch of tree branches. Now all joking aside Clint just can't handle that.

What he can't handle though. What he REALLY can't handle Is slipping off said branches, all the while bracing himself for the fall, and then having his foot get stuck on the very last branch.

He wasn't meant to hang upside down a tree like a jack ass. He really wasn't.

Of course the fact that seemingly all the blood in his head was now flowing down to his head was also an issue.

"Hey Cap!...I'm really starting to...hate this plan of yours!" He managed to choke out.

"I'll be sure to put that under consideration!" Captain America yelled back as he blocked a solid steel fist with his shield. It didn't take long for them to figure out that Sitwell and Rumlow's fear of Creel's "power" were far from unfounded.

Steve wasn't even able to tell him to halt or surrender peacefully before the former boxer grabbed onto the box he was grasping and demonstrated his abilities. Clint almost dropped his bow as they watched Creel's entire body become coated with a steel armor.

It basically all went down hill from there.

Creel had quickly demonstrated the skills he possessed from his background as a fighter when the two Avengers charged at him. In hindsight Steve really hated this plan too.

Clint tried to swing his bow at Creel but the the metal brawler simply caught it with one hand and used all of archer's momentum to throw him through the air.

Hence Clint's current tree predicament.

Steve only fared a little better because of his shield and advanced strength. But unfortunately his training with Natasha still wasn't enough to match Creel's abilities.

Creel swiftly ducked and weaved every time Steve threw a punch or swung his shield at him. Then in a fluid motion seemingly milliseconds later he would counter with a jab of his own that would always hit Steve's most vulnerable spot.

Luckily Steve was able to quickly able to catch on and learned to bring his shield back to block Creel's counters. Of course the sharp burning his ribs felt from Creel's blows made him wonder if it was too little too late.

Clint let out a yelp when his foot slipped off the branch and he proceeded to drop into a waiting bush with a thud. The archer reached around in the grass for his bow and quickly sprung up into a crouch once he found it.

Hawkeye grabbed an arrow out of his quiver and primed it. "Damn it Cap, quit moving around so I can get a clean shot."

Steve quickly blocked three jabs with his shield and kicked Creel in the knee causing the slightly larger man to lose some of his balance. Seizing the opportunity Steve kicked Creel in his side a few times and then swung his shield around connecting with Creel's chin. The impact sent Creel rolling back a few feet away.

Steve threw his shield at Creel as he ran back towards Clint, the vibranium shield bouncing right off Creel's steel chest and back to Steve.

"Clint! Give me some cover!"

"Coming right up," Clint took another arrow and put it with the already primed arrow in his bow, he fired them both and they latched right onto Creel. The brawler still disorientated from Steve's flurry slowly looked down at the two arrows attached to his chest. He blinked when they started to beep.

BOOM

The explosion caused by the arrows gave Steve ample cover to reach Clint and grab his shoulder. The Avengers retreated to another area of the park and jumped behind a bench Steve over turned.

"Got any other plans?" Clint asked grabbing another arrow out of his quiver. Steve glanced over the bench and saw Creel emerge from the cloud of smoke caused by the small explosion. "Oh that's just great," Clint cursed once he followed Steve's lead. Steam slowly rose off Creel's steel skin as the behemoth of a man rolled his neck as if he had just gotten out of bed.

"This guy isn't going to go down easily." Steve gripped the top of their barricade as he followed his training.

He could hear Colonel Philips barking in his ear, 'Find your tactical advantage Rogers!'

"You know because I respect you I'm not going to make a Captain Obvious joke," Clint quipped as he shot two more arrows through the air and towards the chest of Creel. But this time Creel was ready for it, catching them both with his 'bare' hands.

"I hate when that happens," Clint sighed. Steve could almost feel Clint flinch once Creel snapped the arrow like a twig.

"You know I might have been joking earlier, but now would be a really great time for another plan." Clint yelled priming another arrow.

Steve assessed Creel as he rolled his metal shoulders. Their enemy wore an emotionless but intense scowl on his face.

"Well I think I got one more plan in me."

Steve looked at Creel and then looked at Clint.

"Charge."

Clint sighed.

"I was afraid you were going to say that."

The two jumped over the bench and ran at Creel.

* * *

"Thor, would you mind putting me down now. I think we're safe."

Thor looked up at Bruce and immediately felt a little sheepish, they were now walking through a marsh of trees far away from the campsite chaos. Thor quickly(but gently)took Bruce off his shoulder and placed him onto his feet.

"My apologies my friend, it seems I got a little carried away in the heat of the moment."

Bruce smiled reassuringly. " I understand. At least you got the job done."

Thor mouthed a small smile as he nodded. "Indeed. Though I worry about the well being of our friends."

"Me too big guy."

They were safe for the moment but they still had no idea how Tony and Rhodey or the rest of their class for that matter were doing. In went against every bone in Thor's body to run from a battle but he knew the situation would have become much, much worse if Bruce wasn't cared for first.

"Well at least it is not all for naught. Stark is well equipped to handle this mess."

Bruce's face became clouded with worry.

"Actually Thor he might be in more trouble than you think."

Thor stared at the younger boy with a confused look as Bruce reached around in his pocket for something.

"Tony dropped this at the camp..."

Realization dawned on Thor's face when his comrade pulled out a red bracelet. Without his armor Tony was no better off than any normal student.

"We have to find them." Bruce stated.

Thor raised an eyebrow. "You are not going back there."

Bruce however stood his ground but Thor only shook his head.

"I am not going to argue about this with you. You're staying here where it is safe."

Courage flashed through Bruce's eyes as he stared up at the much more muscular boy. "Sorry that's not happening. I'm not going to just sit under a tree while people we share a roof with are in danger. I'm going with you."

Thor offered him a firm but compassionate glare. "I...understand any misgivings you have about this but you must understand. If things get too out of hand and you were forced to turn into the H..."

"Hello! Is anybody there?"

Thor and Bruce quickly whipped around to find the source of the voice. They tried to compose themselves since the voice sounded friendly. They heard a rustling of leaves to the east of them only to see six teenagers emerge from them.

Bruce easily recognized the first two as Peter and Mary Jane, he didn't know the other two as well except by their names Scott Lang and Maggie. The last two bringing up the rear were a couple of football players. The tall African American one Rand,was a nice enough guy. He always seemed to be relaxed and was pretty cordial. But the other guy Flash Thompson, was Bruce's bully Cade's younger brother. And he shared more similarities with his big bro than just a last name.

Mary Jane shook some twigs out of her hair but her eyes widened when she saw Thor and Bruce.

"Hey! Are you guys alright?"

They both nodded.

Mary Jane seemed relieved. "Good, we've been trying to find any other students for a while now. We were starting to think we were never going to find anyone."

Thor walked up to her. "You haven't seen anyone else?"

She shook her head somberly. Thor turned back to Bruce and they shared a concerned look.

In the background Flash crossed his arms and tapped his foot impatiently. "Look are we just going to stand here like a bunch of dweebs or are we going to get moving?"

The rest of his companions appeared annoyed with the muscular blonde but their faces all said that he did have a good point.

Thor looked at Bruce one last time. His teammate's eyes told him that he was not going to be left behind. Thor nodded slowly.

"Yes. Let us go."

* * *

Back at the high school, Mr. Kaplan's sixth period health class were listening intently as he lectured about various natural healing herbs for all kinds of ailments. Natasha however had spent most of class twirling her pencil in her hand like she would one of her knives.

Hence why her notes, unlike most of the other students, were blank. Seeing as how she had by far the best grades on the team next to Bruce this definitely was not the norm for her in terms of work ethic.

Of course it also wasn't often that she was sidelined when there was an ongoing mission. Her earlier conversation with Coulson had done nothing to calm her down, in fact it probably had the exact opposite effect.

Natasha was sure that Coulson was hiding something from them, there wasn't any doubt about it. Now this wasn't anything new in the slightest and she didn't have any sort of delusions regarding it.

She was promised however that she would always be kept in the loop once the team was successfully assembled. That's the main reason she went along with this little project.

And she knew Coulson was deflecting the topic when he brought up the moment she was asked to help Steve head the team and get acclimated. Needless to say she wasn't happy that he had used her roommate as a weapon against her.

Not that she's saying that she wouldn't have done the same thing if she were in his position.

"Hey Natasha, you alright?"

"Hmm-" Natasha turned her head to the sound of the voice to see Pepper. The freckled girl offered the trained assassin a friendly but slightly worried smile. Beside the lovely red-head, that could for some unholy reason tolerate Tony Stark, she saw Jane giving her the same look. "-yeah I'm fine."

"You sure?" Pepper questioned. "You just seem kind of, I don't know. Out of it."

Natasha gave them a forced but reassuring smile. "I'm fine. Just a little...tired I guess."

Pepper didn't look convinced but she decided to change the subject.

"How come none of the guys were at lunch today."

"Erik was there." Jane supplied.

"Yeah and that was it." Pepper countered. "I know Betty is home sick, but I don't know about the rest." She looked over at her fellow redhead. "How about you Natasha. You have any idea?"

Natasha stopped twirling her pencil and raised an eyebrow at Pepper. The girl only looked back at her sweetly.

"Bruce, Thor, Rhodey and Tony are on a field trip."

She knew that the mention of Tony would throw Pepper off.

"Oh he is... I mean they are. Well that explains it I guess. He didn't... Jane did Thor tell you about this?"

Jane looked uncomfortable and she shifted in her desk.

"Um... He did kind of go on and on about going off to 'journey into the wilderness with his brothers in arms'... So yeah I guess he did."  
Jane tucked a strand of her brown hair behind her ear and gave Pepper a sheepish look.

"Hmph. I'm going to wring Tony and Rhodey by their necks when I see them."

Natasha lightly smiled to herself, it might have been mean but it felt good to get Tony in trouble. No actually this was Tony Stark she was talking about. It wasn't a mean thing to do at all.

Unfortunately this also accidentally put Jane into Pepper's cross hairs. The chestnut haired genius was currently trying her damnedest to come up with a new conversation topic.

Apparently she found it when she looked at Natasha

"So only those guys were on the field trip. What about Steve and Clint?"

Natasha snapped her pencil in half with her fingers. Oops. So much for getting over her bad mood.

Jane on the other hand looked like a deer in the headlights. Natasha almost felt bad for her. She wasn't trying to piss the Russian native off. It was just an ill thought out attempt to distract Pepper.

* * *

They

She guessed it wasn't easy dealing with two fiery red heads at the same time.

Natasha decided to take pity on her by mustering up the most polite face she could.

"They're... _out."_

The inflection in her voice and the slight slant in her eyes was all the subtext that the two other girls needed.

"Oh." Jane almost squeaked out.

"They're doing _that._ " Pepper muttered in confirmation.

Natasha didn't nod or say anything but the tilt in her irises did that for her.

Jane and Pepper shared a glance with each other as Natasha leaned forward in her desk and started paying attention to Mr. Kaplan's lecture. Even though she didn't have superpowers they didn't think there was anybody else out of their little gang that was more intimidating.

And that's how she liked it.

* * *

They were lost, there wasn't getting any around it.

The seven of them had followed Thor's lead with no objections, and while it was no fault of his they still had no idea where they were going. It didn't help that all the trees and bushes looked exactly the same. But the worse thing was how quiet it was.

Normally Bruce was all for a silent setting, especially considering who he lived with. But this silence was far from the silent kind. It was too heavy, too foreboding. And he knew Thor felt it too, it was probably why the Asgardian kept his eyes trained straight ahead on the path as he led them.

"How much longer are we going to just walk around like this?" Flash pestered in the direction of Thor's back. Bruce was pretty sure he saw one of the veins on his friend's neck start to pulse a little.

"Do you even know where you're going Goldilocks? Why are we even following this guy anyway?"

Thor's entire neck was definitely red now, almost tomato like in fact. But Bruce could really admire the restraint being shown, if anybody could relate it was him.

"What a loser..." Flash started.

Well so much for that. Bruce knew it was only a matter of time before the trees would be stained in the blood of Thor's victims or in this case victim. He may as well start figuring out how to explain this one now while he was ahead.

But surprisingly Peter decided to pipe up before Thor could even turn around.

"Well you're the one that was in such a hurry to get going Flash."

Flash's eyes erupted in anger as his feet jerked to a stop. Everybody else stopped.

The jock grabbed Peter by his collar and lifted the boy up to his face. To Bruce's surprise the smaller Peter didn't have a trace of fear in his eyes, if anything he just looked bored.

"You trying to insult me Parker?" Flash snorted.

"I don't know. What do you think Flash?" Peter shot back with a lazy smirk.

Bruce would have laughed if he hadn't seen Flash start to cock his fist back. He had seen his older brother do that enough times to know what was coming next. Thor seemed to notice it as well since he started to menace his way over to Flash with his own fists clenched.

But before anybody could do anything Flash suddenly and surprisingly dropped Peter to the ground after the toe of a black shoe sharply smacked his shin.

"Knock it off Flash." Mary Jane warned while the bully began to rub the part where she hit him.

"Ow! You kicked me in the friggin leg."

"Yeah. And next time I'll kick something that'll _really_ make you cry."

The type of malice that was in her expression made everybody freeze and shiver a little. Even Thor.

It quickly went went way though when she looked down at Peter.

"You okay Peter?" She asked as she helped him up to his feet.

He looked at her with insecure and embarrassed brown pupils while he dusted his clothes off.

"Y-yeah. Thanks MJ."

She smiled back at him with an almost exasperated smile, like she was tired of him always being so sheepish. "Anytime."

Flash glanced at the red-head wit the demeanor of a puppy that just got smacked in the nose with a newspaper. But it appeared that he didn't want anymore of what Mary Jane could give because Bruce saw him scamper off to stand next to a very amused Rand. He almost felt bad for him.

Almost.

Scott surprised Peter by clasping him on his shoulder lightly.

"Don't worry about Flash. He's an asshat."

"Scott!" Maggie exclaimed, admonishing her boyfriend with a very motherly look.

"What? I said hat."

Luckily for Scott's sake Thor took that opportunity to make his presence as the alpha dog felt.

"We've been standing around for too long, it's best that we get a move on."

No one felt it necessary to challenge him.

* * *

It only took a few more steel fists to the ribs for Steve to swallow his pride and call the S.T.R.I.K.E team in.

Not that they ended up faring much better.

Creel swatted most of them away without much effort but Rumlow was actually able to get in close enough to hit him with these special batons that had a small electrical current at the end of them. Creel recoiled a bit when Rumlow shocked him in his abdomen and forearm but the thug quickly recovered and kneed his opponent in the gut before lifting him off the ground and throwing him at an abandoned hot dog cart.

So much for back-up.

Clint was over by where the S.T.R.I.K.E snipers where perched but neither his arrows nor their bullets seemed to be making much of a difference. Creel outright ignored them for the most part, until one bullet bounced off his dome.

The near behemoth of a man just stood there by the exit of the park completely still. His white steel eyes bore into their little foxhole. When he finally did move it was to walk over into the street and grab a parked car.

They all scattered when he threw it in their direction.

Steve didn't need to be told how big of a problem it was that this little fight was starting to leak out into the city. More room to fight meant more public bystanders, which meant that the two Avengers had to be much more careful about how they approached the Creel problem. They really didn't need somebody being thrown right through a cafe window.

Coulson was still sore at them for all the school property damage that was caused by the Hulk incident.

Steve spun out from his hiding spot behind a tree and threw his shield at Creel. The projectile hit the brawler in the center mass of his chest, though succeeded in nothing more than briefly knocking the wind out of him. But Steve still took the opportunity to run to Clint's position behind the wall next to the park gate.

He did a baseball slide when he saw Creel launch a mailbox towards him. Right before the super soldier slid behind the archer he held his hand out to catch his returning shield.

"Well this is turning out to be a fun day." Clint breathed as he checked his quiver to see how many arrows he had left. Steve lifted himself into a standing position and put his hand on Clint's shoulder so he could look around him. He was surprised to see Creel was just standing in the same spot as before, if it wasn't for the heaving of his chest the man would have looked like a statue.

It was hard to decipher his expression because of all the metal but stoic would definitely be a word Steve would use for this occasion.

Steve leaned back away from the opening and rested against the wall of bricks.

"See anything you wanna share with the class?" Clint asked dryly as he adjusted an arrow he deemed worthy for this moment.

Steve looked through the opening again to prove his suspicions correct.

"He's not moving."

Clint raised an eyebrow at his leader as he gave the arrow one more look over. "Isn't that a good thing?"

Steve kept a neutral expression as he readied his shield.

"It makes no sense form a tactical standpoint. He knows we're on our last limbs, so why not just leave? He's got what he stole from the warehouse. Why stick around?"

"Maybe he just wants to beat us to a pulp."

"Maybe."

Clint sighed out a gruff breath, putting his hands on the ground to help himself stand up. Once he was he snapped his bow open.

"Well regardless, I've still got some limbs left. So I ain't done yet."

After Clint was finished transforming from sarcastic teen back into Hawkeye he looked down at the Captain with a curious glint in his shiny blues.

"You ready?"

Steve held his gaze for a brief moment before he nodded.

"Stay on my right. I'll be on your left."

* * *

It had took more time than he had anticipated. But he found the right scent.

He was on his target's trail.

He was too lackadaisical in the beginning, a professional of his caliber should have already completed the job by now.

He should have calculated that the campground traps wouldn't have gotten the job done.

But no matter.

He had his prey cornered.

The darkness of this part of the Forrest would serve him very well.

With the amount of money his employer was giving him for this assignment he had no time to waste.

The hunt was coming to a close.

* * *

"Cap look out!"

_Crash!_

Steve made the decision that once he was old enough in the summer he was going to buy himself a lottery ticket.

Because man could he predict the future.

Barely a couple of minutes after Steve and Clint made their final charge towards Creel did the metallic menace stop the archer in his tracks with his knee. Steve tried to help his teammate but this allowed the enemy to grab him by the star emblem on his chest.

And then throw him through the window of a Starbucks.

Luckily nobody got hurt. All the civilian were able to run away before they were crushed by the weight of a teenage super soldier. Unfortunately the window a few tables weren't so lucky.

Sorry Coulson.

But Steve couldn't worry about that right now, even though he ached a bit he forced himself to stand up and brush all the glass off his uniform.

This little mishap gave Creel the opportunity to isolate Hawkeye.

The archer's combat skills were actually much better than advertised but unlike Steve he didn't have super serum durable skin. Because of that he had to duck and weave whenever Creel threw a punch. He was able to quickly dodge a couple blows and on the last one he ducked under Creel's arm and swung his bow at his exposed midsection.

Which ended up doing almost nothing at all.

Creel simply grabbed the bow and threw it to the side, Clint glanced at it's position on the ground but didn't take his eyes off his foe for long.

"Don't you hate when that happens?"

Clint launched a desperate punch towards the still silent Creel's face but ended up being trapped by a steel palm. The Avenger winced when he felt his appendage start to get squeezed to the point of serious damage so he flung his other fist in a last ditch effort. Unfortunately it met the same fate. Dead white eyes stared into Clint's as their owner squeezed, crushing the trapped hands until the archer fell to his knees. He wanted to scream out in pain when Creel continued to scream.

Steve came out of seemingly nowhere and vaulted himself into the air bringing his shield down across the side of Creel's face as he descended.

Clint's attacker stumbled from the blow but remained on his feet. Steve quickly balanced himself and spun around in a 360 degree angle bringing his shield around with him. This time Creel was knocked a few feet further when the vibranium disk hit him square in the jaw.

Since their foe was dazed Steve paused to help his comrade off the ground.

"Thanks."

Steve nodded although his mask slightly hindered his ability to do so.

"You alright?"

"Nothing a few days off wouldn't fix."

Steve had a response ready to use but it was exiled from his memory when he saw the gleam of sunlight bouncing off of steel that was heading their way.

Letting his war time instincts take control he sent the palm of his hand into Clint's chest with enough force to move him out of the way and brought his shield up just in time to absorb the impact of Creel's fist.

He had to plant his feet as much as he could into the tarmac of the city road to hold his ground. The metal Creel was "made" out of couldn't even dream to chip the paint of Steve's shield. But that didn't mean that the punch it was guarding against didn't carry some power behind it.

Creel wasn't a rapid fire float like a butterfly kind of boxer. He was methodical, ugly, scrappy.

He was impact over form.

His strikes didn't follow any flow or pattern. He just hit. And hit. And hit.

And while Steve was spared the task of having to contort and pivot the position of his shield in fancy motions he wasn't much longer he could keep blocking. Especially with how machine like Creel was. Never mind that he had yet to say a word since they arrived on the scene but the man barely took pause to breathe.

It was like all he could do was fight. Sometimes it was impossible to defeat someone like that.

The shrill tone of a sharp beeping noise barely registered through his ears. He took a chance when his shield locked horns with Creel's knuckles and looked down to where he thought the noise was coming from.

One of Clint's arrows was lodged in the ground by Creel's feet, a red light flashing on the side of it like a timer.

With not a lot of time to react Steve brought his shield up in a powerful uppercut motion that sent Creel's arms up into the air. Steve jumped back a few feet just as the arrow stopped beeping.

With a loud crack the arrow exploded and Creel's feet suddenly became trapped in a jagged mound of ice.

Steve used his momentum to do a barrel roll forward, launching himself forward at Creel who was too busy trying to break out of the ice. Steve swung his shield hand into a jab with all the force he could muster, connecting with the brawler's jaw. The impact threw him out of the ice and onto the sidewalk with a cringe worthy thud.

Clint ran up next to Steve and the two heroes eyed the form of their opponent with their weapons still raised.

He didn't move.

Clint visibly relaxed when Creel remained still, the archer straightened his back in order to stretch it. He winced a little when an unpleasant pop came out from it.

"See. Easy assignment." He chuckled punching Steve's chest in a friendly manner.

Steve felt like sticking his eyebrow up at his housemate but he knew it wouldn't have been seen with his mask.

"Yeah." He looked back at the mess behind them. "A real walk in the park."

Clint briefly looked but he dismissed it with a wave of his hand. "Ah well. These things can't be helped."

Steve side eyed him for a moment but decided to keep any more comments to himself as he glanced back down at Creel.

"Did you shoot him with an... ice arrow?"

"Hmm?"

Steve hitched his head in Creel's direction.

"Oh! Yeah. That arrow had a gas polymer in it that solidifies into ice when it's exposed to air. I almost forgot I had it actually."

Steve nodded dumbly pretending to follow the science behind it. Then a random thought that he didn't know had been bugging him popped into his head.

"Where do you get your arrows from anyway?"

"Funny thing. Actually I..."

"S.T.R.I.K.E team move in!"

Rumlow and his team all converged on their position with their rifles raised. Steve and Clint stepped out of their way deciding not to voice their frustrations of being interrupted and allow the agents to contain their target.

Sitwell walked up to the two but never took his eyes off of Creel.

"We appreciate your help Avengers. We'll take it from here."

They watched the shorter man make his way towards Rumlow with barely a word of goodbye.

"Charming guy." Steve quipped once the man in question was out of earshot.

"That''s the fun of dealing with the agency." Clint sighed. Steve could tell there was something else behind it but he didn't press.

"I'm sure the company Christmas party is a riot."

Clint patted Steve on his back.

"Your alright in my book Steve. Your alright."

"Thanks."

Clint sent one more glance at the enclave of agents before he began walking off in the direction of their car.

"Come on Cap. I think we've enough of New York for the day."

Steve kept his focus on the agents lifting the now plain skinned Creel onto a stretcher.

After another second he turned on his heels and went to join the archer.

* * *

Tony and Rhodey found themselves in one of the darker parts of the preserve. The trees there were so closely bundled together that the sunlight could barely peek through their leaves.

All the roots sticking out of the ground just made the vibe all the more creepier.

"Maybe we should turn around Tony. This place doesn't exactly leave me with the warmest feelings."

Tony shrugged as he looked at the roots below and the trees above them. "Might as well. I really don't need to see the creature from the Black Lagoon today."

The two friends turned around to backtrack their steps but froze when they heard a crunch of leaves close to them.

"Tony please tell me that was you."

They both stared in the thick of bushes they thought the sound came from.

"Rhodey I know that your such a pathological prankster but now hardly seems like the time to goof around."

Rhodey kept his eyes where they were but he mentally frowned at Tony.

"Don't even try to put this on me. Admit it, you got bored so you stepped on some leaves to scare me."

Tony didn't look at him.

"I did not."

"Come on Tony don't play around like that."

"I'm not!"

The leaves crunched again, this time it sounded much closer.

Both their eyes widened.

"Ok so maybe you aren't doing this."

"It must have killed you to say that." Tony muttered under his breath.

Rhodey side eyed the armor less hero but they both froze again when the crunch sounded like it was mere inches away from them.

A pregnant silence followed causing them to frantically look around every visible crack of their surroundings.

A dozen little black orbs rolled towards their feet.

"Are those..."

Rhodey's question died in his mouth when the orbs erupted into a series of mini explosions that knocked Rhodey off his feet and sent Tony back against the tree positioned behind them.

The noise of the bombs numbed most of the boy's senses with their eardrums ringing from the aggressive cracks. But in spite of this they were still able to hear a low gruff voice.

"And now the hunt is complete."

It was then that Tony saw a knife flying towards him.

* * *

Thor and the others had been hiking in a part of the preserve that they still couldn't identify when the sound of multiple explosions stopped them in their tracks.

"What was that?" Flash asked, the young man's face carried this uncharacteristic look of fear. Thor chose to ignore it and instead turned his head to where the sounds came from. Whatever the commotion was it wasn't too far away, he could probably run over to it in no time.

Except he wasn't exactly alone, he had the safety of an entire group to be concerned about.

Plus there was Bruce's "condition".

His companion in question was facing the same direction he was, his ears just as perked as the Asgardian's.

"That sounded exactly like the cherry bombs from the campground."

Mary Jane spun to Bruce form her position in between Peter and Thor.

"You think the thing that hit camp is happening again?"

The red-head's cautious expression and nervous tone caused Bruce to shuffle his feet a bit. Thor could almost see the shift in his friend's demeanor and confidence.

"I do."

Thor admired how Mary Jane kept her composure at Bruce's answer, especially since he could feel the panic set in with everybody else.

"Well what are waiting for? We have to do something, we can't just ignore this."

Now Peter's reaction on the other hand definitely surprised Thor. He knew from what he saw earlier with Peter's tussle with Flash that the younger boy had courage but the courage he heard in his voice was invariably unique to a select type of people. It was something Thor had learned to identify well at this point his life.

So far Thor had only met two people with this particular trait. One he met on Earth and the other still resides in Asgard.

This Peter Parker was interesting, at least for a mortal.

"No disrespect Pete but what can we do?" Rand said speaking up for the first time. His baritone voice betrayed a sympathy the Asgardian did not assume the large almost brick wall teen could possess. Especially because of the apparel the boy wore that Thor knew also belonged to the likes of Cade and Flash.

"We're just a bunch of high schoolers."

Thor couldn't help the slight shrug of his shoulders. It was fortunate none of the others had their attention focused on him. Because if they head been they would almost certainly be unsettled by his nonchalant nature pertaining to their predicament.

The mortal Peter looked up to the much larger Rand, Thor would have been amused with the juxtaposition had he not been so enraptured by the almost warrior like demeanor this Parker child was portraying.

"There's always something that can be done Rand. Most of the time it's the scariest option you could think of but you can always do something."

Thor crossed his arms over his chest as he put most of his weight onto his back foot. His posture probably looked like he was watching some new activity that he never thought to consider. These mortals were interesting indeed.

Apparently Flash didn't find it as fascinating.

"Get real Parker!" Thor almost stepped in when the bully started to get into Peter's face but he didn't end up needing to interfere because one glare from Mary Jane seemed enough to protect the security of Peter's personal space. "I mean what, are you just going to swing in and save the day!"

Peter didn't blink.

"If that's what it takes."

Flash bellowed an obnoxious booming laugh. He bumped Rand's shoulder with his fist as if he was trying to get the fellow football player to laugh with him.

He didn't.

Mary Jane looked as if she wanted to murder Flash when he continued to laugh but Peter stopped her with a shake of his head.

"That's priceless Parker. Really priceless." Flash finished laughing wiping a tear out of the corner of his eye. "What makes you think somebody as puny as you could do something like that. This is the real world man, wake up."

"Do you have to actively try to be such a douche or does it just come naturally?" Scott deadpanned with an arched eyebrow. This time his girlfriend found no reason to scold him.

"Who asked you anything?" Flash grit through his teeth turning his attention to the taller than Parker teen.

Scott had his hands lazily in his pockets but his face held a kind of hardness that betrayed his usual laid back nature. "I'm sorry. Did I upset you Flashy Washy?"

"That's it! You asked for this..."

"Enough!"

Everyone flinched at Thor's outburst. When they turned to him they saw that he was standing up straighter then he had been when they first stopped walking. The way the sun shone on his back made him look almost like an old greek hero.

Of course they barely knew the half of it.

"This prattling is accomplishing nothing. I will go and investigate what happened, you should all remain here until I return."

"Why the hell should we do what you say! Who died and made you king." Flash barked when Thor turned around to walk away.

Finally having enough of the brutish boy Thor stepped up to his face with a dangerous glint in his eyes.

"If you would rather be the one to go off into danger then please, be my guest. But if not, shut your mouth and wait here."

Flash gulped and slowly nodded his head. Thor didn't even have enough patience to laugh, he had enough with this whole ordeal. The trip he had so been looking forward to was finally ruined. Thor glared at him one more time before walking away, his boots crunching more loudly then they had been before.

"Thor! Wait."

Thor halted when he heard Bruce's voice, he looked down at the ground and took a deep breath. He already knew what the genius wanted.

"Stay here Bruce."

"Thor I can help you..."

Thor looked up at him and his eyes made the genius froze.

"STAY here."

Bruce didn't like it but he nodded, the Asgardian's patience seemed to have run paper thin. The smallest of the Avengers looked down at the ground as the largest stomped away. After a couple of minutes Thor's steps stopped.

"Keep them safe." His voice was softer than it was just a few seconds ago.

"I'll be back soon."

* * *

The knife lodged itself into the cloth above Tony's shoulder. Thankfully it just missed his actual shoulder but it did trap him against the tree. He tried to grab it and take it out...

"That won't do you any good."

The man that threw the blade was decked out in black combat gear, he wore a vest adorned with several types of smaller blades just like the one that was way too close to Tony's face for his comfort.

"Who are you?"

The man bobbed his head as if he was chuckling but he made no noise about it.

"That is...a dangerous question."

The man had short black hair that seemed to connect with his scruffy almost wild beard. His eyes were cold, focused, calculating. It wasn't the easiest thing to handle but Tony held his gaze. He gave this new threat his best hero glare before he spoke up.

"Well I'm dangerous too."

The man did the soundless chuckling motion again.

"Amusing. Unfortunately I have yet to see much to back up that claim."

"Oh you haven't seen nothing yet."

This time the man let out an actual chuckle. Tony just noticed that there was the smallest hint of a foreign accent in his voice.

"Usually I wouldn't engage in such conversations with my targets. Of course if this was the usual situation, you would already be dead. But you," The man waved his finger at Tony like some cheesy Bond villain. "You are special."

"I'm flattered honey cheeks."

The man waved his finger at Tony one more time as he started to walk towards the tree. But the man halted in his tracks when he reached Rhodey. He bent down to be eye level withe still downed young man. He stared into the boy's eyes with this small unsettling smile on his face. All Rhodey could do was stare back, his eyes wide and his mouth slightly agape.

The man chuckled as he looked back up at Tony. The hero wanted to say something, something brave or witty. But he couldn't.

"You have provided me with more entertainment that I could have hoped for. For that I will break the number one rule in my profession, and tell you my name."

Normally Tony would have said five snappy remarks by now. But in this case he could barely hear anything with his heart rapidly beating in his chest. The man looked down at Rhodey and then back up at Tony.

"My name is Kraven. And I am the man who is going to kill you both."

Kraven reached into his vest and pulled out a knife much larger than the one that imprisoned Tony. He turned his attention back down to Rhodey and roughly grabbed the boy by the collar of his shirt.

"You are not my target. So your death will be quick." His eyes slowly found their way back to Tony's. "But my employer wants you to suffer before I bring him your head. So I cannot guarantee you the same."

"Leave him alone!" Tony was finally able to breathe out, though it sounded much much weaker than he hoped it would be.

"He's seen my face and he knows my name. I can't have loose ends."

He raised his knife and tightened his grip on Rhodey, Tony saw his best friend close his eyes and turn his face away from Kraven. There had to be something he could do.

"Rhodey!"

_Thwip_

Kraven's knife was blasted out of his hand, it moved so fast that Tony couldn't see exactly what happened but he could have sworn that he saw a white bullet hit it. Kraven lifted himself off of Rhodey, who let out the weakest of sighs, and walked over to his blade on the ground.

He reached down to touch it, but strangely he snarled after doing so. It was covered in this gooey substance that glued it to the ground. Tony and Rhodey shared a look with bated breath as their captor frowned. He whipped out a smaller knife and tried to carve his other one out of his confinement. Kraven plucked off a drop of the substance and held it in between two of his fingers.

It was thick but malleable, it was...animal like.

It was like a web.

"Hey hands off the merchandise Tarzan. Those things don't come cheap you know."

Kraven shot up and his eyes darted from the trees to the bushes, searching for where the voice was coming from.

"Who dares?"

A flash of red and black swooped down from the trees. The man was much shorter than Kraven, he was also rather skinny. You couldn't see his face or his eyes because of the red mask and black goggles he was wearing. In fact the only exposed part of his body were his fingers although his hands were covered in fingerless gloves.

The stranger wore red and white sneakers that went all the way up to the thighs of his black jeans. His elbows and knees were padded, his outfit was completed by the red and black hoodie he wore.

And he had a black spider emblem on his chest.

"What are you supposed to be?" Kraven growled at the unwelcome newcomer.

"Who me?" The stranger asked back as he crouched into a fighting position.

"I'm just your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man."

Tony and Rhodey shared a flabbergasted look. "Spider-Man's real?" Tony mouthed demonstratively.

Kraven thumbed his knife that he freed from the web.

"No...you're a dead man."

He threw both his blades at Spider-Man but the vigilante ducked under one of them and acrobatically flipped over the other. When he landed on the ground he quickly shot two web pellets out of the shooters on his wrist.

Kraven unsheathed the machete resting on his back and sliced both pellets.

"Come on dude!" Spider-Man whined throwing his hands in the air. "I already told you these things are expensive."

Kraven roared as he hurled his machete at the costumed savior. Spider-Man easily saw this coming and casually leaned to the side, completely avoiding the sharp weapon.

"Missed me!" He taunted.

Kraven only snarled and grabbed four sharp darts out of his vest and put two in each hand.

"You weren't a part of the original deal. But you'll die just the same!"

The assassin spun around and launched all four darts with a primal battle cry. Spider-Man wasted no time blasting two of the darts with his web shooters and then rolled under the other two.

"Alright then," He grumbled as he finished rolling into a crouch.

"Let's dance!"

Rhodey lifted himself off the ground when the two combatants charged at each other and ran over to Tony.

"See what happens when I hang out with you Tony. I almost get stabbed by a psycho!"

"You don't remember reading that on the brochure?" Tony breathlessly chuckled as Rhodey removed the knife from the shoulder of Tony's jacket. They both looked over to the developing battle.

Spider-Man had an acrobatic and flexibility advantage over Kraven and he had a surprising amount of strength. But he was reserved, like he had to restrain himself. But Kraven was ruthless, he didn't care. He just wanted blood.

"What should we do?" Rhodey asked as they observed Spider-Man duck under Kraven's other machete.

"Well I don't have my armor but we can't just leave him."

At that moment Spider-Man avoided a knife in a flashy manner, posing for effect halfway through. But this gave Kraven the chance to sweep Spider-Man's legs and send him to the ground. Kraven dropped down on top of him and held his knife to his foe's neck.

"This teach you to keep your nose out of others business."

Tony jumped onto Kraven's back and wrapped his arms around the man's neck. Rhodey slid over to them and joined Tony in holding Kraven down.

"Hold him!" Tony yelled.

"I'm trying!"

"AHHH!"

Kraven let out a guttural scream and used all his strength to throw the two off of him. He grabbed his knife off the ground and ran off towards Tony.

"Now you die!"

Tony tried to crawl on his back away from him but Kraven was running at him.

Maybe he finally ran out of luck.

A blinding flash of light came in between Tony and Kraven, whatever it was sent Kraven flying into a tree. When he hit the ground he fell into unconsciousness.

Tony, who closed his eyes due to the searing light, opened them to see a small scorch mark in the ground where the flash hit.

Like a lightning bolt hit it.

"Are you all right friend Stark?"

Tony looked up with widened eyes when he saw the flanneled form of Thor staring down at him.

Thor looked at the scorch mark and then back at Thor with an eyebrow raised.

Thor only winked at him.

"Thorton buddy. I've never been so happy to see you."

Thor held his hand out to help the billionaire up. Once Tony was standing again he patted his teammate on the shoulder and let out a shaky laugh.

Rhodey walked over to them and the three turned to see Spider-Man covering Kraven's body in a web.

"Well thanks for the help. I'll take George of the Jungle here over to the police. And remember kids... stay in school."

And with that Spider-Man threw Kraven over his shoulder in a surprising show of strength and swing away using his webs.

The three stood quietly as they watched the flash of red and black disappear in the distance. Well it was quiet until a big old light bulb went off over Tony's head.

"Hey I just realized something."

"Oh this is going to be good I can already tell."

Tony was so happy he ignored grumpy old Rhodey.

"I won the bet!"

Thor chuckled with his deep pleasant voice and Rhodey...Rhodey was reacting as best as could be expected.

"Come friends. Banner and I found a few other students and they are not too far away from here."

Thor threw his arms around both of his friend's shoulders and began to lead them out of the area they were in. Tony's face was still lifted in pure elation over being able to stick it to Rogers. But poor Rhodey was holding the area in between his nose and forehead.

Goddamn Superheroes.

* * *

When Steve and Clint walked into headquarters Natasha was waiting for them in the meeting area on the bottom floor.

"So how was _school_ boys?"

The two stopped to look at their only female teammate. Her left leg was crossed over her right and one of her slick eyebrows was arched at them both. It wasn't the most settling of postures.

"Everything all right Natasha?"

Clint admired Steve's brave soul. He thought he was dumb, but he admired him.

Thankfully for Steve's well being Natasha only looked at him and refrained from causing him any physical pain. Of course maybe her eyes were more dangerous. The courageous fearless leader of a super hero Breakfast Club gulped under gaze.

"How did the mission go?" She finally asked.

Clint felt like he had bonded with Steve during the ordeal of the day so he decided to take pity on him. "Super powered individual with absorbing abilities caused a muck in Central Park. He threw us around for an hour or so but we knocked him out after a while."

Natasha nodded with that cold stony expression of her but her eyes went over to Steve.

"There's glass in your uniform."

Steve looked down at his shoulder and felt a small blush start to peek on his face.

"Oh... he uh kind of threw me into a Starbucks window."

Natasha's eyes and lips tilted up a little bit.

"Coulson will love that."

"Yeah I figured."

She kept her gaze on him while he looked down at his feet somewhat timidly. Apparently they did this a moment too long because Clint awkwardly coughed into his fist.

Natasha rolled her eyes at the archer before turning her attention back onto her roommate.

"Why don't you go up to the apartment and clean yourself up? You've had a long day."

Steve finally looked up at her and slowly nodded at her. "Good idea."

He gave a Clint nod as he made his way over to the elevator. The archer waved two fingers at his captain with a small grin.

The two "normal" members of the Avengers sat in silence until the elevator binged. Once it did Clint walked over to where Natasha was sitting and sat on top of their "meeting" table as Tony affectionately dubbed it.

"Rumlow and the S.T.R.I.K.E team were there."

Natasha's eyes widened slightly.

"What the hell were they doing there?"

Clint shook his head. He looked down at his wrists as he rubbed them. "Sitwell said the perp stole some strange artifact from a S.H.I.E.L.D warehouse."

"Sitwell was there too?"

He nodded.

"Reminded me too much of the old days."

He started to swing his legs a little.

"I tried to confront Coulson today but he stonewalled me."

"You think he's hiding something from us?"

She nodded.

"What do you want to do about it?"

She stayed silent for a moment.

"I need you to spy on Coulson."

Clint couldn't say that he was surprised, but he couldn't stop his eyes from widening a little.

"We've really gotten to that point haven't we."

"He promised to keep us in the loop. We've gone along with everything he's asked of us, we played babysitter, we went to school, and we acted like we never met each other until the Hulk incident. We deserve answers."

Clint nodded at her but he sent a quick glance towards the elevator.

"Do you want to include Steve in this?"

"No. Why would I."

"Well he is our leader...and you guys have become pretty close in the few weeks we've been here."

This time she looked at the elevator but she quickly looked away from it.

"He's just an assignment."

Clint looked at her, or at least tried to but her red curly locks were doing a good job of masking her face.

"You absolutely sure Nat? He's a good guy."

"I'm sure."

Clint was silent but he slowly nodded. He really liked Steve, he really did. But he had to respect her wishes.

"Whatever you say. I got your back regardless...partner."

She gave him a small smile.

"Thanks. We've got a lot of work to do and we have to be discreet about it. But we'll get our answers."

"Damn straight."

* * *

Meanwhile in an unknown location, two men sat around an old table in a dimly lit room. One of the men, who had long black hair and a scraggly beard, sat at one end while the other man sat at the other end with his hands interlocked in front of his face.

"So what do we do now Master Loki?" The bearded man asked as he began to cut into his steak.

"You sound concerned Mister Raymond," Loki stated as he ignored his own food and stared into their roaring fireplace.

Grover Raymond scarfed down a few bites of steak and potatoes before wiping his face with a napkin. "Are you not my lord? After all, both Creel and Kraven failed in their endeavors to defeat the children."

Loki smirked as he finally picked up his silverware and cut a small chunk out of his steak. "I believe you misunderstand my intentions Mister Raymond."

Raymond stopped chewing for a moment to eye his master warily. After a moment he finally gulped down the food he had in his mouth rather loudly. "Are you saying that you don't want to destroy them?"

Loki laughed as he bit into the piece of meat at the end of his fork. "Not in the sense of the word that you're thinking of. Of course that is not important at the moment."

Raymond put down his utensils as he raised an eyebrow at Loki.

"Is it not?"

Loki picked up his napkin and lightly wiped at the corner of his mouth. "Remind me to tell you about my family one day, especially my brother. But no, it is not."

"I am afraid I do not understand, my lord."

Loki put down his fork and leaned forward on his elbows onto the table. "Grover, you believe that both Kraven's and Creel's failures serve as some sort of a blow to our plan?"

Grover was quiet for a slick moment, the tiniest bead of sweat threatening to drop down his forehead.

"Y-yes master."

"And why is that?"

Grover finally picked up his napkin and quickly wiped away the sweat on his forehead. "Because they were defeated."

Loki nodded slowly at his follower, leaning back into his chair. "And that, Mister Raymond, is not our problem."

If Raymond wasn't confused earlier he than he was definitely confused now.

"Why not master?"

Loki smiled at him as he picked his fork back up taking another bite of his food.

"I never expected them to fall today Raymond. I just wanted to give Kraven and Creel an...opportunity. An audition if you will."

"An audition?"

"Yes. And while they may have failed, it is of no consolation to us."

Raymond stared at his lord in wonder. "It isn't?"

A wicked grin came to life on Loki's teeth.

"Of course not Mister Raymond."

"After all, those were just the first of many auditions my dear Grover. There are many more candidates just salivating for the chance to prove themselves."

Grover looked down at his food, gazing at his reflection from the almost cleared plate. "Master, may I ask you something?"

"Ask your question Raymond," Loki didn't look up. He just kept cutting away at his steak.

"Why was I not mandated to go through one of these...auditions."

The fork that was a breath away from Loki's mouth froze in time. His dark green eyes lit up and a snake like grin started to form on his mouth.

"Quite simple my friend. I chose you."

"You chose me?"

Loki nodded.

"I chose you because you are special Raymond. There was something in you unlike any mortal I have encountered."

Raymond didn't know what to say. He was almost embarrassed with his masters words of praise.

"Thank you."

Loki's smiled widened a little and picked his fork back up.

"This is a time for excitement Grover. I hope you are ready."

"Of course master."

"Good. Because we are just getting started."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1): This will be explained in a later chapter, maybe in this story or maybe in After School Special


End file.
